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Bonk • C ~1_ 

Copyright N'L_sXtJk_ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 

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“I’m Simply Thrilled,” Said Carol 






























JEANNE’S 

HOUSE PARTY 


BY 


Alice Ross Colver 


Author of “Jeanne,” the “Babs Books” 


Illustrated by 

J . M. Clifton 


THE PENN PUBLISHING 
COMPANY PHILADELPHIA 

1923 












COPYRIGHT 
1923 BY 
THE PENN 
PUBLISHING 
COMPANY 



Jeanne’s House Party 


Manufacturing 

Plant 

Camden, N. J. 


Made in the U. S. A« 


NOV 30 '23 

©C1A766052 

A 






INTRODUCTION 


{» 

F 

Friends of “Jeanne” who followed her 
adventures out of a warring country into 
America where, though there was peace, there 
was apparently no friend to aid her in her 
poverty and loneliness, may perhaps be glad to 
read of her safely sheltered for a summer in a 
cosy cottage in Vermont with her beloved new 
Mama. 

But even here, for all the loveliness of her 
surroundings, Jeanne finds trouble too, though 
of a different kind. Her three cousins, who 
are to be her guests for the entire vacation, are 
all girls of different temperaments and up¬ 
bringing. It is not conceivable that they should 
live harmoniously until the difficult busi¬ 
ness of adjustment has taken place. The 
necessity for discovering and meeting each 
girl’s need Jeanne feels falls entirely on her 
shoulders, but she is aided in her efforts by 
other unexpected guests so that after a few 
weeks of strain you will find “ Jeanne’s House 
Party ” voted a success by all. 


CONTENTS 


I. 

The First Guest 

• • 

9 

II. 

Sharp Coenees . 

• • 

30 

III. 

Beeakees Ahead 

• • 

52 

IY. 

An Exciting Picnic . 

• • 

69 

Y. 

The House Paety Grows 

• • 

86 

YI. 

Gaieties Begin . 

• • 

100 

VII. 

The Spook House 

• • 

113 

VIII. 

News Feom the Feont . 

• • 

129 

IX. 

The Baseball Game 

• • 

143 

X. 

Ruth Comes Out of Hee Shell . 

154 

XI. 

Ruth Loses a Feiend 

• • 

169 

XII. 

The Regatta . 

• • 

183 

XIII. 

Jack. 

• • 

184 

XIY. 

The Beach Party . 

• • 

206 

XY. 

Bad News foe Caeol 

• • 

219 

XYI. 

A Walk in the Woods . 

• • 

232 

XVII. 

Jack Tuens Prophet 

• • 

248 

XVIII. 

Plans for the Future 

• • 

263 

XIX. 

A Farewell Party . 

• • 

273 

XX. 

Bread and Butter Letters 

• • 

285 











ILLUSTRATIONS 


4 ‘I’m Simply Thrilled,” Said Carol . Frontispiece 

PAGE 

A Sailboat with Its White Sails Billowing . 105 

“You’re My He, You Know,” She Ended . 168 

Her Face Lifted to the Great Gray Aeroplane 197 
His Share in the Dance Was Negligible . .278 


Jeanne’s House Party 




i 





Jeanne’s House Party 

CHAPTER I 

THE FIRST GUEST 

A slim figure in a black bathing suit 
trimmed in bright yellow emerged from the 
cool shadows of the cottage and stood for a 
moment on the broad verandah looking at the 
scene before her. 

Lake Sunnapine, a deep clear blue, lay 
motionless under the hot summer sun. It 
looked, Jeanne thought, like a jewel, a sap¬ 
phire, perhaps, set in the close embrace of low 
surrounding hills. They swept in gentle lines 
down to the very shore, and because they were 
densely wooded with evergreens, there hung 
always in the air a soft fragrance. 

Jeanne drew a long breath of delight. It 
was perfect, this place. Simply perfect. Her 
look moved from the lake to the line of attrac¬ 
tive cottages set in a horseshoe about an open 

9 


io Jeanne's House Party 

field. They snuggled back among the trees, 
some of them so hidden from view that only 
sounds of voices and music in the daytime or 
twinkling lights at night revealed that they 
were there. Jeanne’s, or rather, “ Mother 
Stafford’s” cottage (for Jeanne had been 
adopted by Mrs. Stafford during the war when 
she had been left an orphan in France), was 
happily located on the highest point of ground 
at the curve of the shoe. From here one could 
obtain the best view of the lake out over the 
“ green,” as it was called. And here, too, there 
was more sunshine, for behind this cottage the 
woods abruptly stopped and a few paces to the 
rear of the kitchen door was the “ back road ” 
to the village. This openness before and be¬ 
hind admitted sunlight all day long, while the 
other cottages were darkened by surrounding 
woods until afternoon. 

Mrs. Stafford’s cottage had another advan¬ 
tage of being removed from its neighbors suf¬ 
ficiently to insure absolute privacy. On one 
side she had left her property naturally wooded 
as she had found it. A small trail led to the 
next house on her right. On the other side an 
arm of the lake cut in. This had been dammed 


11 


1 The First Guest 

up so that a boat house could be built and a 
little private swimming pool made, that was 
easily reached from her own home. The 
“ front road ” from the village, which followed 
the inlet and the shore up to the Point of Pines 
Colony, turned in at the first cottage and 
swept around in front of them all, had to cross 
a rustic bridge to the right of Mrs. Staf¬ 
ford’s boat house before it reached the next 
place. 

A halloo from the shore stopped Jeanne 
from her contemplation of the place still quite 
new to her. She waved her hand in response 
and then ran lightly down the steps to follow 
the path through the center of the green to the 
beach. 

She was entirely unconscious of the eyes that 
were on her as she moved through the flowery 
field, for to those people the story of her brave 
escape alone from France to America was still 
new, while to her it belonged to a forgotten 
past. She was still dreaming, still absorbed 
in a fresh wonder at the beauty of the place and 
a tremor of excitement at the realization that 
soon—soon—she would have three other girls 
to share it with her. Would they love it as she 




12 


yeanne's House Party 

did? Would they love her as she hoped to love 
them? Would it be a summer of joy, fun and 
friendship? 

On the beach she paused smiling at every¬ 
body she knew. And in the few days that she 
had been here she had come to know nearly 
everyone. The babies and children turned to 
her as flowers turn to sunshine, demanding a 
share of her interested attention, sure of her 
generous and instant enthusiasm. The older 
people, to whom Jeanne gave an old-fashioned 
deference, as eager and warm as it was polite, 
nodded their heads in approval as she passed 
them with a greeting. And the young j)eople, 
who were stretched out in all the informal at¬ 
titudes of youth on the dock, could not have 
paid her a higher compliment than to call to 
her that they had waited half an hour for her, 
delaying their own plunge until she should 
come. 

“ But you should not have.” Jeanne’s 
quaint accent made them smile. She stood 
knee-deep in the water, golden curls peeping 
from under a black bandanna, framing a sensi¬ 
tive face of rare sweet beauty. “ Why should 
you wait for me to come swim with you when I 


*The First Guest 


13 

cannot swim? But you are darlings, just the 
same,” and she blew them a light kiss. 

“ Ho! ” A boy of sixteen years leaped to 
his feet and ran to the end of the spring-board. 
“ That didn’t quite reach me, Jeanne. The 
breeze died before it got here. I’m coming to 
claim another! ” 

With which he dcve into the lake and in a 
few seconds splashed in next to Jeanne. He 
stood upright beside her, flinging his wet yellow 
hair back from his forehead, his blue eyes 
laughing into hers. But he did not dare say, 
so close to her, what he had audaciously called 
from the dock. That was the thing about the 
little French-American that made her differ¬ 
ent. She possessed a daintiness, an aloofness, 
a reserve that set her apart. 

“ It’s your hard luck that the breeze died,” 
she told him. “ Besides, that was for all of 
you, not you alone. Do you desire to give me 
another swimming lesson, Ted? ” 

Ted Van Tyne agreed enthusiastically. His 
twin brother, Victor, swam in to issue direc¬ 
tions. Victor and Ted were as alike in 
appearance as two peas, the only difference 
being in the color of their eyes. Ted’s were 


14 ‘Jeanne s House Party 

blue, a clear deep blue like the lake. Victor’s 
eyes were slate blue, with more gray in their 
depths. Both boys were tall and well set up, 
and Jeanne, struggling in the water, with 
Ted’s hand under her chin, was conscious of a 
gladness that they were here, were her nearest 
neighbors, and were so nice. 

There were four other young people, the 
Allen girls, Dorothy and Grace and their boy 
cousins visiting them. They lived in the end 
cottage of the horseshoe. Rodney and 
“ Pink,” as he was called, because of his tend¬ 
ency to blush, were out now in the deep water 
with the two girls and Jeanne, standing again, 
breathless and flushed, looked at them with 
envy. Everybody could swim. Everybody . 
From the tiniest toddler of three and a half to 
—to—well, Mother Stafford. Everybody but 
her stupid self. Would she never learn? 
Would Ruth know how? And Carol? And 
Bee? 

“ Thank you, boys, so much. You are kind. 
Go out now with the others and get your own 
swim. I must return.” 

“So soon? You’ve been in only five min¬ 
utes.” 


The First Guest 15 

“ But you forget,” she reminded them, 
“ Ruth Winfield comes on the four o’clock 
train. I’m going to meet her. Hark! That 
is mother blowing her whistle for me now.” 

“ Oh, to be sure. I’d forgotten. The 
second member of the Frolicsome Fair ar¬ 
rives to-day. Well, bring her down to 
the Club House to-night and we’ll pass judg¬ 
ment.” 

Jeanne was thoughtful as she left the Van 
Tynes and walked back across the Green to the 
cottage. Ted’s words so carelessly spoken 
filled her with forebodings. For that was just 
what they did, these hard young things, they 
passed judgment. And if a girl or a boy 
didn’t conform, didn’t fit into the crowd, dared 
to be “ different ” or was so unfortunate as not 
to be able to help being different, he or she was 
an outcast. Should any of Jeanne’s cousins— 
Ruth or Carol or Bee—fail to measure up to 
the crowd’s standards, the results would be 
disastrous. It would be a calamity that no 
effort on Jeanne’s part could help or prevent. 
One or all of her guests would have a miser¬ 
able summer. Jeanne could, of course, get 
the boys to dance with her friends, but what 



16 ^Jeanne's House Party 

fun is that if a girl knows a boy is dancing with 
her to please some other girl? 

She paused at the foot of the steps to look 
back a little wistfully at the lake. 

“ Oh, it’s a perfect place,” she said again to 
herself. “ A perfect place for a perfect time. 
And I do so want everybody to have it! ” 

She followed the path to the rear of the 
house, slipped off her black sandals and yellow 
stockings, dipped her feet in the pail of water 
set out by Ivatie and hurried through the din¬ 
ing-room to the stairs up to her room. 

“ Hurry, Jeanne, darling.” Mrs. Stafford, 
on the verandah, called to her daughter. 

“Yes, mother dear.” 

Jeanne truly meant to hurry but her head 
did get so full of thoughts and while they 
pushed and jostled about in their eagerness 
each to take front place, she would sit, one foot 
in her lap, the bath towel hanging from her 
idle hands, her wide brown eyes staring out 
through the window to the blue lake. 

She didn’t know sometimes which was the 
least real part of her life: those fear-filled 
moments when she saw her family and her 
home wiped out of existence by the Germans, 


The First Guest 17 

and herself starving and alone in a friendless 
world; the months when, with hope of a new 
home and a mother given her by big splendid 
“Dr. Jack” at the relief camp, she had 
struggled alone through countless difficulties 
and dangers to America and her new Mama; 
or these last few moments when, safe and 
sheltered at last, she was given care and love 
lavishly. There were moments when the 
luxury and ease of this new life seemed too 
good to be true, other moments when the 
terrors and trials she had undergone she felt 
must have been a bad dream. 

To-day as she finally slipped into a white 
pleated wool skirt, and pulled a pale-green 
sweater over her head, this life was real. She 
was really Jeanne Lanier Stafford, fortunate 
adopted daughter of Mrs. Stafford, and the 
happy possessor of two homes, a winter one 
near New York and this summer cottage in the 
hills of Vermont. Imagine owning two rooms! 
Having them fitted up to suit her! 

She glanced about the big square room as 
she brushed her fluffy hair. Two little gray 
beds side by side, gray bureau, two little gray 
rocking-chairs, a gray table and the prettiest 


i8 Jeanne's House Party 

cretonne curtains at the windows,—background 
of a gray fence with tiny roses clambering over 
it. Who was going to share it with her? She 
couldn’t, she simply couldn’t decide. 

Would it be Ruth, the girl she would meet 
in a few moments? Ruth Winfield, the 
oldest of a large family, about whom Mother 
Stafford remembered only “ beautiful eyes and 
fat legs.” Ruth’s letter had sounded nice, 
much, much nicer than Carol’s. Jeanne 
frowned a little as she pinned a wee black bow 
at her throat and fastened a narrow black belt 
about her sweater. Carol she was quite sure 
she didn’t care to have too close to her. Still, 
that wasn’t fair, perhaps. Perhaps she ought 
to room with Carol King just because Carol 
was as alone and unused to being with large 
families and sisters as she was. Just be¬ 
cause Carol had always had loads of money 
and nobody to share her possessions with 
her and might be a little difficult,—just be¬ 
cause of that, perhaps Jeanne ought to be 
the one to room with her and not one of her 
guests. 

But still there was Beatrice Kent, the niece 
named after darling Mother Stafford, and Bee 


"The First Guest 19 

was Dr. Jack’s own sister. Oh! she must 
room with Bee. They had so much to talk 
about. There were such mountains of things 
she wanted to ask Bee about Jack. And 
because of her letter of acceptance to the house 
party, so warmly enthusiastic and so genuine, 
Jeanne had felt more drawn to the little 
Western girl from Montana than to any of 
the others. 

“ But after all,” she concluded, “ after all, 
they’re all nice. The thing to do is, as Mother 
said, to find their special nicenesses.” 

She snatched a small soft sport hat, green 
with a black quill thrust through it, from a nail 
on the wall, crushed it over her gleaming hair, 
and ran lightly down through the living-room, 
across the porch and down the path to the car 
in the road below. 

“ We’ll just have time to get there,” her 
mother said, but it was not reproof for 
Jeanne’s lateness. Her tone held rather a 
tender understanding of the little girl who 
found it so difficult to do anything or get any¬ 
where at an appointed time. 

“ I’m dreadful—but I get to thinking,” 
Jeanne replied. 


20 


c Jeanne > s House Party 

The automobile and the train stopped at the 
ugly little station simultaneously. Jeanne, 
stepping out behind her mother, saw a solitary 
figure getting off the train, and her heart sank. 

Was this Ruth? This stolid looking girl 
with the thick ankles, dumpy figure and un¬ 
becoming hat? Mother had remembered noth¬ 
ing about her but fine gray eyes and fat legs. 
Well, let’s see the eyes then. Ah, they were 
fine. Jeanne, perhaps a little supersensitive 
beyond her years because of her experiences, 
felt swift reactions to people, and Ruth’s gray 
eyes, so heavily and darkly fringed, woke in 
her an instant warmth, akin to pity. For in 
them lay a desperate appeal for friendliness. 
With genuine gladness, her hand went out to 
this stiff silent girl who was flushing most un¬ 
becomingly in her embarrassment, and into the 
depths of the eyes opposite her flashed for a 
second a fervent response, a dumb thanks. 
But the light was quickly shut out and Ruth, 
a little awkward and altogether silent, took her 
place in the car between her aunt and her 
cousin. 

Mrs. Stafford kept the conversation going, 
for Jeanne, for all her sympathy, was not ex- 


The First Guest 


21 


perienced enough to handle this situation. She 
did her best, however, with the enthusiasm and 
hope that something would touch and tingle 
Ruth to an answering openness. And all the 
time her mind was frantically hunting for easy 
topics, her eyes were registering with acute 
dismay various undisputable facts. Ruth's 
hair, though heavy, was oily and unbecomingly 
fixed. In her attempt to be modish, she had 
puffed it out over her ears, too far for her broad 
face. Her mouth was sullen and- 

Jeanne came out of her private thoughts 
with a jerk. This would never do. She must 
talk and she must remember those eyes. If 
Ruth would only let them speak, she herself 
might remain dumb forever. 

But except for that first desperate appeal 
and flashing thanks, Ruth's face was set like a 
mask. With utter impassivity, she gazed at 
the waters of the channel, sparkling and danc¬ 
ing in the sun. 

“ Yes, it is pretty,” she acquiesced. 

“ And you will love the cottage too. It’s the 
only one painted white, and that, added to the 
fact that it’s exactly at the center of the horse¬ 
shoe and a little higher than any of the others, 



22 


Jeanne s House Party 

makes it stand out. Here we are! Now you 
see, the road begins to curve in away from the 
lake, and goes up in front of all the houses. 
k Yes, that’s ours-” 

Jeanne was rattling on in a sort of frenzy. 
At last the car stopped before their deep 
verandah and she was able to find relief in 
action. She wondered if Ruth were apprecia¬ 
tive of the shady porch with its swings and 
book-filled tables and comfortable chairs; if the 
cool gray living-room, with its warm scarlet 
chimney and gay Indian blankets flung over 
couch and piano, appealed to her. But Ruth 
passed by everything with set face, apparently 
seeing nothing, or else seeing everything in 
such confusion that she could register neither 
surprise nor pleasure. 

She followed Jeanne up the stairs uncon¬ 
scious of the least little hesitation in Jeanne’s 
manner. 

“ My room is here. Suppose you take this 
one until the other girls come, then Carol and 
Bee will have to choose between us.” 

She said it lightly but Ruth’s response 
shocked her. 

“ They’ll both choose you.” 



The First Guest 


23 

tv 

While it was pleasant it hurt and embar¬ 
rassed Jeanne. She stood for a moment in 
utter silence, then happily gentle words came 
to her. 

“ Not if you will let us know you, Ruth, not 
if you won’t keep yourself all shut away behind 
your beautiful eyes—they are beautiful, you 
know.” 

The dreadful moment had passed. Ruth, 
who could have bitten out her tongue in morti¬ 
fication, breathed again and Jeanne felt that 
somehow that little second of agony had opened 
the way for her. She kept on talking while 
she helped Ruth unpack and then another in¬ 
spiration came to her. 

“ You must be awfully hot. There’d be 
time for a swim if you’d like to, before supper. 
Do you swim? ” 

a/ 

Ruth’s heavy face lit up in a surprising 
way. 

“ Oh! I love to. Might I ? I have my bath¬ 
ing suit right here. I thought-” 

“ Aren’t you lucky to know how to? I 
struggle so hard. Puff and pant, and work as 
no one else seems to and I get nowhere. Yes, 
bring your suit. You can dress in the boat 



24 Jeanne's House Party 

house. There are rooms down there and you 
can go in off the dock, unless you’d rather go 
to the beach? ” 

But Ruth seemed as unwilling to meet 
people as Jeanne was to introduce her, so that 
five minutes later the new guest was diving 
from the dock of the Staffords’ boat house. 

The boat house was at the rear and left of 
the cottage. The lower floor held the boats. 
On the second floor were two bath houses, a 
bedroom for the chauffeur, a big glassed-in 
room which could be used for dances, and 
opening off this, a balcony overlooking the 
water. 

Jeanne, sitting on the rail of the balcony, 
watched Ruth in silence. In her trim bathing 
suit, with her hair tucked under a scarlet cap 
she was rather good to look at. Her sturdy 
legs were a part of her sturdy body, and there 
was admiration for her in Jeanne’s eyes as she 
cut clearly through the water with free strong 
strokes. 

“ You swim beautifully,” she called down. 

“ I love it,” Ruth laughed back, and the 
laugh showed strong even teeth. 

“ It must be all in her clothes and her hair,” 


The First Guest 


25 

Jeanne thought, “ She’s almost good-looking 
now.” 

She left Ruth to dress alone in the boat 
house and by the time the girl had finished and 
returned to the house again, it was supper-time. 
A table was set on the porch and Jeanne and 
her mother, clad in their cool white, were wait¬ 
ing in a swing for their first guest to appear. 

She came, in her shy, embarrassed way and 
sat down in a chair. Her dress was her pret¬ 
tiest new one, a pale green with white ruffles at 
the neck and elbows, and a wide white sash. 
But somehow the color was unbecoming to her 
dark oily complexion and the wide sash made 
her appear dumpier than ever. The difference 
between her and Jeanne, slim in her green and 
white, was a difference each of them felt. 
Ruth thought Jeanne reminded her of birch 
trees. 

“ Well, what about the dance to-night? Are 
you girls going? This little settlement boasts 
a club house, Ruth, my dear, a quite modest 
affair built down by the shore. But it seems 
to serve as a gathering place for dancers or 
inside picnics or card parties, and is in constant 


26 'Jeanne's House ~Party 

“ What do you do for music? ” 

“ Victrola,” Jeanne answered.: “Do you 
play the piano? ” 

“ A little.” 

Ted and Victor came over before the tea 
things were cleared away, and the introduction, 
usually a difficult moment for young people, 
was helped along by their identical looks. 
Jeanne, hearing Ruth laugh in honest con¬ 
fusion, breathed a little sigh of relief. Ruth 
was stiff but it might perhaps just be because 
of the newness of things. Possibly in a day 
or two it would have passed away. 

But she was mistaken. Ruth’s moment of 
self-forgetfulness was soon over. The twins, 
though alike in appearance, were utterly un- 
alike in disposition. Ted was merry, sociable, 
quick-witted and gay. Victor was shy and 
sensitive and went about with an enormous 
chip on his shoulder. 

It was characteristic of Ted that he ap¬ 
propriated Jeanne as his companion in the 
walk to the Club House and it was equally 
characteristic of Vic that he unsuccessfully 
made the best of a bad matter. 

He and Ruth, their tongues and feet stum- 


Fhe First Guest 27 

bling in their embarrassment, followed the 
gayer couple and entered rather solemnly 
and unhappily into the joys of the first 
dance. Finally Vic stopped and wiped a wet 
brow. 

“ It’s no good. I can’t dance. I can’t talk. 
As a social success I shine like a lump of mud. 
This dance is over, thank Heaven, I’ll get Ted. 
He’s got to do his share.” 

Fie left Ruth burning with shame and anger, 
entirely misconstruing his last words which he 
had meant to put all the blame on himself. 
When Ted came he found her flushed and curt, 
silent except when some little remark of sar¬ 
casm came to her lips. 

Ted, gallant and eager to please, neverthe¬ 
less found Jeanne’s guest a stiff dose to swal¬ 
low, and once again she was left with as quick 
a grace as was possible. 

Jeanne, whirled about from dance to dance, 
watched with growing concern Ruth’s misery. 
Boys were introduced. Oh! yes! Jeanne saw 
to that. But the stupid things stood about 
and stood about until they saw a chance to 
turn about and run. Except for her first two 
dances and another agonizing one with 


28 Jeanne s House Party 

“ Fatty ”—the joke of the crowd—Ruth re¬ 
mained glued to her chair. 

“ Ted, please, just one more,’’ Jeanne was 
pleading with him to approach Ruth a second 
time, when the Victrola with a groan and a 
whirr died in its tracks. 

There was great commotion. Lamenta¬ 
tions rose to the sky. The bare little dance 
hall rocked with concerted groans. Various 
and sundry embryo mechanics volunteered aid 
or information or both, but the Victrola 
concluded it had earned a decent death and 
not even a swan song could be ground from 
it. 

It was only nine o’clock. A boy finally 
seated himself at the piano and calling upon 
the gods and the guests to note his unselfish¬ 
ness, he played for the next three dances. 
Then there was another pause, during which 
Jeanne went to Ruth. 

“You said you played. [Would you like to 
help us out? If everybody that could, would 
take turns-” 

“ Oh, I’ll play! ” Ruth, impatiently, a little 
bitter smile at her mouth, went to the piano. 
The rest of the evening was a triumph for her. 



The First Guest 


29 

She played beautifully, in perfect time, with¬ 
out any music. 

“ How do you do it? ” Ted asked enthusias¬ 
tically. 

“ I play by ear,” she replied shortly. 

“ Well, keep it up. It’s the best we’ve ever 
had. I move we pitch the Victrola in the 
lake.” 

When the two girls said good-night that 
night at the doors of their rooms, Jeanne spoke 
out impulsively. 

“ That was dear of you, Ruth, to play all 
that time. Everybody was awfully apprecia¬ 
tive.” 

“ Oh,” Ruth tried hard to keep her tone 
careless, but hurt and shame and bitterness 
would creep in—“ I’m used to it. I’m always 
driven to it, sooner or later. Good-night.” 


CHAPTER II 


SHARP CORNERS 

The thin board partitions in the bedrooms 
did not go all the way to the ceiling. This was 
to insure free ventilation. So Jeanne, waking- 
early the morning after Ruth’s arrival, lay still 
in her bed, fearful of disturbing her guest. 
For an hour she lay there, slender white arms 
crossed under her head, her great eyes fixed on 
the ceiling. 

The day loomed as long as a lifetime ahead 
of her for it was clear that getting on with 
Ruth was going to be difficult. Take the mat¬ 
ter of last evening for instance. The thing to 
do was to overlook and forget as quickly as 
possible Ruth’s failure to “ make a hit.” But 
Ruth herself wouldn’t. She was edgy. All 
the prickly side of her nature seemed to be 
turned out. It was as though Jeanne were 

trying very carefully to walk around a table 

30 


Sharp Corners 31 

without hitting its sharp corners, and every 
way she turned the table turned too, so that a 
sharp corner and she were always in painful 
contact. 

She understood that some of Ruth’s surli¬ 
ness was due to miserable self-consciousness, 
and the rest of it was due to the fact that her 
new clothes over which she had toiled so pains¬ 
takingly, were neither pretty nor becoming 
in contrast to Jeanne’s. And she suspected 
further, that Ruth was dreading to meet the 
new cousins still to come. 

How much she dreaded it, Jeanne was never 
to know. But Ruth, waking early and lying 
still too, was shedding some tears over it, silent, 
bitter tears. She wished she hadn’t come. 
She wished somebody would get terribly sick in 
her family and she would be needed at home. 
She wished she might never have to see Ted 
and Victor again. Especially Victor. No, 
especially Ted, because Ted and she did get 
along, scraped a conversation somehow and yet 
there had only been the one dance. 

Why was it that her tongue wouldn’t say a 
thing when she wanted it to, and when she 
didn’t want to, it blurted out the worst things 


32 Jeanne's House Party 

that could be thought of? Why need she be 
fat and ugly and stupid, too? For she was 
stupid. She knew how to cook. Oh yes. 
But what girl wanted to know how to cook 
when she was fifteen? She wanted to know 
how to talk. And if she didn’t learn soon it 
would be too late. She’d be set. That was 
the way she put it. Set for a dummy. 

She had come to the house party tremulous 
beneath a stolid exterior; quivering with beauti¬ 
ful bright colored dreams, vague enough ex¬ 
cept that they included and depended upon a 
miraculous change in herself. Somehow, by 
merely moving her physical self from one place 
to another, she was to become a different per¬ 
son. None here knew she was dull and cross 
and the work-horse at home. With her new 
clothes to help her, she was to burst from the 
chrysalis a butterfly. She was to talk and 
laugh and be gay and alluring as she had never 
been, had always wanted to be, and secretly 
believed she could be. 

But things hadn’t gone right from the start. 
The enthusiastic little speech she had planned, 
and rehearsed so many times in the train, died 
in her throat. She remembered nothing but 


Sharp Corners 33 

her thick ankles as she saw Jeanne’s pretty 
slender feet when she jumped from the auto¬ 
mobile. And then her clothes-! She had 

thought them so darling at home. But here 
they were all wrong. Not dresses. Sport 
clothes were the thing. Gay sweaters and 
squashy hats and pleated skirts and low heeled 
shoes. Ruth, teetering about in her high heeled 
black slippers at the dance, had been most un¬ 
comfortable and realized she looked it. 

Well, here she was. That was the point, the 
tragedy of it all. Here she was. She, Ruth 
Winfield, a dull cross work-horse. No butter¬ 
fly about it. She hadn’t changed and now she 
couldn’t change. Jeanne and Aunt Bee had 
seen her, had known her for what she really 
was, and now Carol and Bee were coming to 
know too, and they wouldn’t like her. And 
the summer stretched ahead, dreary and dread¬ 
ful. For it took more courage than RutH pos¬ 
sessed to try to bluff, to-day, a new shining 
self. 

It also took more insight than Ruth pos¬ 
sessed for her to realize that any such change 
as she desired must take place deep within her¬ 
self, in her spirit, first. One cannot pretend to 



34 "Jeanne s House Party 

be what one is not. That is the surest way to 
failure. Ruth had failed but she didn't yet 
know why. She was to endure much before 
she learned. 

So it was the same quiet stiff Ruth who ap¬ 
peared at breakfast that morning. A girl 
whose manner was so repressed and cold as to 
forbid the warm advance Jeanne had resolved 
to make. It was an utter impossibility to slip 
an arm through Ruth’s and talk with her 
naturally. Jeanne, chilled at the start of the 
day, had reached the lowest point of dis¬ 
couragement when she, with Ruth and Mother 
Stafford, stood waiting for the train that after¬ 
noon that was to bring M’amselle and her two 
charges, Carol and Bee. For the success of 
her house party largely rested with her. It 
was for her to promote good fellowship, estab¬ 
lish warm friendship and guarantee to her 
guests a good time. But if her guests them¬ 
selves refused friendship, and spoiled their own 
good time, what was she to do? 

Her anxiety had become almost tearful 
when the train stopped and the few passengers 
alighted. To Jeanne it was positively almost 
a relief when a distracted M’amselle in sobs 


Sharp Corners 35 

and broken English caught Mrs. Stafford’s 
hands in hers and cried out: 

“ Oh! Madame! The sickness that I feel. 
Those two babes are lost. I know not where. 
For just a moment for a leetle breath of air 
we stopped off the train. Those naughties— 
against my express wish, Madame,—would go 
in to buy candy. I called to them, and ran to 
get on. The train was moving. I supposed 
they had entered by another door. I went 
to search—the whole train was searched, 
but-” 

Her excited outburst finally ended in tears. 
Jeanne, who was the only one to comprehend 
entirely, put an arm about the weary black 
garbed little woman and spoke to her in 
French. It comforted her as nothing else 
could have. She dried her tears, kissed Jeanne 
on both cheeks and strove to answer Mrs. 
Stafford’s question calmly. 

“ Did they have any money? ” 

“ A little—how much I know not. Carol 
carries her own purse with some in it always— 
but the tickets and the most of everything was 
with me. I think she had enough for the 
candy.” 



36 Jeanne s House Party 

Mrs. Stafford went at once to the telegraph 
office. When she came back she was pale but 
quiet. M’amselle had gladly shifted the re¬ 
sponsibility on to the American lady’s shoulders 
and the little group listened in silence. 

The girls had been left in Rutland. The 
station agent had seen them. They had asked 
about trains to Sunnapine. He had told them 
there was no other train except a freight until 
the evening. They had walked away and had 
not been seen since. Mrs. Stafford concluded 
that they had more money than M’amselle re¬ 
alized and had gone into town to find some¬ 
thing to eat, or else just to pass the hours 
until the evening train. 

“ Are they girls whom you think would be 
sensible and level-headed in an emergency like 
this? Could they take care of themselves, do 
you think? ” Mrs. Stafford asked M’amselle. 

She shrugged. 

“ Zey are vairy remarkable girls, the both of 
them. I could never say what zey could do or 
what zey could not. For I believe American 
girls can do anything they wish.” 

This made them laugh and a little of the ten¬ 
sion was relieved. Mrs. Stafford finally con- 


Sharp Corners 37 

eluded there was nothing to do but go back to 
the cottage and come down for the evening 
train three hours later. Of course they could 
motor to Rutland but it would be like hunting 
for a needle in a haystack to find them there. 

With compressed lips and thoughtful brow 
Mrs. Stafford finally decided they would better 
go back to the cottage. She would not sound 
an alarm until she had given the girls a chance 
to take care of themselves. 

So back they went, a rather quiet, appre¬ 
hensive group. M’amselle was given one of 
the down-stairs bedrooms opening off the liv¬ 
ing-room and after she had refreshed herself 
by a change of clothes and a wash, she joined 
the other three on the porch. 

They heard the freight rumbling in and out 
again, and then a silence that grew more and 
more anxious and apprehensive rested upon 
the watchers. 

“Oh,” Jeanne cried at last, “I simply 
can’t stand this sitting and worrying. It’s 
terrible. Come on, Ruth, let’s go down to the 
road and walk a little.” 

They had hardly gotten off the porch and 
into the dusty roadway below, when they saw. 


38 yeanne's House Party 

turning in at the horseshoe, a plodding horse 
pulling an old wagon, and two surprising 
young figures sitting on the driver’s seat. 

It was rather amusing that none of them 
could voice the question or the hope that was in 
their hearts, but as though jerked by a single 
string, all four of them gathered together on 
the lowest step of the porch and stood stock 
still, after Jeanne’s low cry, waiting for the 
wagon to approach. 

It was a laborer’s dirt cart, an old dump 
cart that bumped and rattled and jolted the two 
girls about as though they had been dummies. 
Bee held the reins. Her hat was off, her 
cheeks were flushed, her short bobbed hair 
clinging in damp curls about her forehead, and 
she waved her whip and halloed a welcome to 
the astonished group. 

“ It’s all right! It’s us! We’re here! ” 

Beside her, more crumpled and rumpled and 
dirty than M’amselle had ever beheld her, was 
Carol. With slim white hands she clung 
to her precarious seat. Her face was pale 
but she was smiling gamely, rather tremen¬ 
dously excited at her first unchaperoned ad¬ 
venture. 


Sharp Corners 39 

As they drew up before the cottage, Bee 
jumped down and rushed to Mrs. Stafford. 

“ Of course you’re Aunt Bee! Oh! we’re 
so sorry, M’amselle; do please excuse us for 
frightening you to death! It was all my 
fault—Jeanne! You darling. May I kiss 
you? You’re exactly the way Jack said you’d 
be. How do you do, Ruth? ” 

There came suddenly a frightened squawk 
from Carol. 

“Bee! Help me down! He’s running 
away! ” 

Bee jumped to the ancient horse who had 
ambled forward to take a few bites of grass. 
M’amselle tried to help Carol alight, but was 
brushed aside. 

“ How do you do, Aunt Bee? I’m really too 

dirty to touch you. I never was so dirty-” 

A little ruefully she gazed at her soiled dress 
and hands. “ But it has been fun. Were you 
frightened, M’amselle? How silly! We aren’t 
babies.” Her tone to the fluttering French 
woman was contemptuous. “ Now don’t fuss. 
It was all too simple. We simply begged a 
ride on the freight train. It was frightfully 
jolty. I expect I’m a mass of bruises. And 



40 ^Jeanne s House Party 

at the station there was no taxicab. Then I 
was floored but Bee poked around asking a lot 
of terrible looking men at the post-office ques¬ 
tions and finally arranged to drive this chariot 
up herself.” 

“ The man’s coming up later for his house¬ 
hold pet.” Bee laughed. “ Carol was terri¬ 
fied of this lamb.” She patted the horse’s 
neck. “ I wish you could see Whiz. She’s a 
horse! ” 

“And now, please, may I wash? ” asked 
Carol. “ Have you unpacked our bags, 
M’amselle? No? Well, what have you been 
doing? I wish clean clothes at once. Where 
is my room, Jeanne? ” 

She slipped an arm through Jeanne’s and 
led her into the house, ignoring Ruth. Mrs. 
Stafford and Bee followed. M’amselle and 
Ruth remained on the porch. 

“ M’amselle has no sense at all,” Carol con¬ 
fided in an undertone. “You are prettier 
than I thought you’d be. Ruth isn’t pretty at 
all, is she? ” 

Mrs. Stafford spoke. 

“ The bathroom is on the first floor, Carol, 
off the kitchen. It is our latest improvement. 


Sharp Corners 41 

We are very proud of it. Ask Katie if there’s 
enough hot water for a bath.” 

“ No, ma’am,” came Katie’s voice from the 
kitchen, and Katie followed her voice to the 
living-room. “ There’s narry a drop of hot. 
’Twas too warm a day for me to be startin’ 
the coal fire in the shtove. Can’t the young 
lady take her bath in the lake like Miss Ruth 
did? ” 

Carol stood staring in amazement at this 
easy spoken servant who, unrebuked, gave her 
this suggestion. With a stamp of her foot and 
a toss of her head she was about to speak when 
Aunt Bee got ahead of her. 

“ Of course, I thought probably you hadn’t 
had a fire but it was as well to make sure. Get 
your bathing suit, Carol, you and Bee, and fly 
down to the boat house for your bath.” 

With difficulty Carol choked back various 
unsaid things and managed to reply, simply: 

“ Find my bathing suit, M’amselle.” 

“ Carol.” 

Something in Mrs. Stafford’s voice brought 
the young girl to a halt at the foot of the stairs. 
She turned in surprise to face her aunt. 

“ Your mother has written me that M’am- 


42 Jeanne's House Party 

selle has been paid to bring you to my house. 
After that her service for you ends. You are 
here. M’am selle is dismissed and is my guest 
for a few days until she is ready to leave. You 
will have to unpack your own clothes. Your 
suitcase is in your room.” 

Amazement, incredulity, anger swept over 
Carol’s young face. Never had so authorita¬ 
tive and kind a voice spoken to her. The ex¬ 
perience left her dumb. Finally she tossed her 
head and with an “ Oh! very well,” ran lightly 
up the stairs. 

Jeanne followed, then Bee. On the way uj) 
at the bend of the stairs, Bee caught Jeanne’s 
arm and whispered: 

“ Can’t we room together? ” 

Jeanne nodded. 

44 Which is my room? ” Carol demanded at 
the doorway of Jeanne’s room. 

44 You and Ruth have this one, next to Bee’s 
and mine,” Jeanne said quietly. 44 Mother’s 
is here.” 

This time anger flashed into Carol’s face, 
burning out the tears that had first sprung to 
her eyes. 

44 I’m not accustomed to sharing my room,” 


Sharp Corners 43 

she said in a low tense voice, “ not with persons 
like—her.” And she nodded below. 

Jeanne was suddenly as coolly angry as 
Carol was hot. 

“ There seem to be many things you are not 
accustomed to. Life is like that. One must 
simply take them as they come—these disagree¬ 
able experiences—and laugh! ” 

“Preaching!” Carol’s tone was contemp¬ 
tuous. She flung into her bedroom and 
slammed the door. 

Bee and Jeanne entered theirs and Bee 
closed the door carefully, then she turned to 
look at Jeanne. 

She stood in the middle of the room, her 
hands clenched, her eyes blazing. Bee went to 
her, kissed her quickly, patted her shoulder and 
then started unpacking the suitcase that lay on 
one of the gray chairs. Between these two had 
sprung up instantly an understanding that 
needed no words nor long period of time to 
strengthen. It was evident in Jeanne’s whis¬ 
pered words to Bee as she turned and seated 
herself in the other chair. 

“ Thank goodness for you, Beatrice Kent,” 
she said solemnly. 



44 


*jeanne s House Party 

“And thank goodness for you,” Bee whis¬ 
pered back as solemnly. Then they both 
quickly smothered a laugh and began to 
talk about Bee’s journey, her home in the 
West, the people here at the lake and—Dr. 
Jack. 

Jeanne listened eagerly to all the news. He 
was close to the front line of battle now and 
terribly busy, but oh! so thankful to be, and 
wishing they were dozens of him. Then Bee 
handed over some snapshots he had sent home 
of himself. Jeanne bent her head and scanned 
them closely. 

“Ah!” she cried at last, with satisfaction. 
“ Here is a laughing one. That is how I knew 
him. A laughing Dr. Jack. Not one but he 
laughed at camp, you know. Might I keep 
this? ” 

Bee nodded and while she talked, Jeanne cut 
out the little picture and fitted it into the cover 
of her wrist watch. 

“ This was the only kind of a suit I could 
get. Is it all right? ” 

Jeanne looked at Bee’s slim little figure in 
the green suit with its diminutive skirt, and 
nodded. 


Sharp Corners 45 

“ Perfectly. Just like Ruth’s. She’s a 
wonderful swimmer. Are you? ” 

“ Can’t swim a stroke. But I’m going 
to learn. Carol can. Ready, Carol? ” she 
called. 

“ Yes.” Curt, hard, the answer came and 
the three met in the hall. 

“ You can come back here and dress or take 
your clothes to the boat house,” Jeanne told 
them both. 

“ Oh, I’ll come back here. Saves lugging 
down my things.” 

“ I’ll dress there,” Carol said quickly. “ I’ll 
at least be sure of privacy.” 

Ruth went with them to the boat house, 
miserably wishing she had not, until Jeanne 
slipped an arm through hers on the balcony and 
said quietly: 

“ You must teach us, Bee and myself. Will 
you? ” 

“ I’d love to.” 

There was a little silence as they watched the 
two in the water below, Bee splashing about 
tremendously, unafraid with Jeanne’s water- 
wings, Carol slipping through the water swift 
as a fish, now floating lazily on her back, now 


46 ^Jeanne's House Party 

darting under the water to come up suddenly 
and grab at Bee’s legs. 

With all the girls generous in their praise of 
Carol’s skill in the water, a semblance of friend¬ 
liness was established. The atmosphere of the 
place was to depend, after all, on Carol, not 
Ruth. For Ruth, stiff and tactless as she was, 
did not quarrel. She kept still. She kej3t too 
still. Carol was going to speak too much and 
too quickly. She would be the wrangler, the 
one who would make sparks fly. If Carol’s 
mood was peaceful peace would reign. If she 
was irritable, she was the sort of person who 
would eventually succeed in making everyone 
else irritable. 

She was the last to leave the water and Ruth, 
following Bee and Jeanne up while Bee 
dressed, wandered rather aimlessly into her own 
bedroom while she waited. At the threshold 
she stood still in a shock of horror. 

For the room which she had remembered 
leaving in perfect orderliness was now in a 
mess. Carol must have whirled her clothes out 
of her suitcase, for they lay all over. On the 
beds, on the chairs, on the floor. The closet 
door was open. The bureau was a confusion 


Sharp Corners 47 

of hair-nets, powder boxes spilling their fra¬ 
grant contents, and hairpins. Ruth gave a 
little laugh, and at the same time she felt a hot 
wave of fury sweep over her. This was her 
room as much as it was Carol’s. .What right 
had she? And they had to share the bureau. 
Was it always to be in dirty array? 

She was on the point of sweeping Carol’s 
clothes from her own bed to the floor, but as 
she touched them, anger died and in its place 
came a feeling so odd that she did not know 
quite what it was. Envy, of course, that the 
soft silks and satins were not her own. But it 
was something more than that. It was an 
awe, a reverence for the sheer beauty of them, 
their texture, their daintiness. She caught her 
breath, held them close, felt them lingeringly, 
then, before she was aware of it, she was pick¬ 
ing up everything with an unspeakable delight 
in the mere touch of the stuff, hanging silken 
skirts and petticoats and waists in the closet, 
folding away the crepe de chine underwear, 
putting the dainty little shoes in a neat row on 
the floor. 

And as she worked some vague thoughts 
came to her. Not clearly, for Ruth did not as 


48 ‘Jeanne's House Party 

yet think clearly, but there was a wonder if 
Carol would resent her action, a faint belief 
that she would not, that without M’amselle’s 
service for her, she would be glad of Ruth. Not 
that Ruth would do the servant trick too often 
but,—and this with some complacence,—it 
might teach Carol a lesson, evidently needed, 
that every lady knows how to take care of her 
own things. But back of it all was the urgent 
hunger for friendliness. Ruth felt terribly 
alone, more so as she saw Jeanne’s and Bee’s 
instant companionship. Carol would intrude 
on those two as she, Ruth, would. Might they 
not, then, she and Carol, form an attachment of 
their own? 

She had disliked Carol at once, had resented 
Carol’s rude ignoring of her,—but she was so 
pretty. Oh! She was so pretty! Jeanne 
was, of course, but not in quite this dashing as¬ 
sured way of Carol’s. Ruth, having neither 
beauty nor self-possession, admired it in others. 
And perhaps—just perhaps—Carol could, in 
some unseen and inexplicable way, help her to 
be that shining butterfly self she so longed to 
be. 

So Ruth put the room in order again and 



Sharp Corners 49 

then with that tremulousness carefully hidden 
under a stoic exterior, she went down to the 
supper table spread again on the porch. They 
were all there waiting for Carol who came in 
and ran up-stairs to fix her hair. When she 
came down later in a pale blue dress with her 
golden hair caught back in a big black bow and 
her slim feet in black slippers, she was a lovely 
picture. 

“ Who picked up all my clothes? ” she de¬ 
manded. 

A dull color suffused Ruth’s face, but she 
spoke up bravely. 

“ I did, Carol. I hope you don’t mind. 
They were so lovely, all those silky things, I 
couldn’t keep my hands off them.” 

“ Why! I think it was sweet of you.” 

Carol gave Ruth a brilliant smile and went 
over and sat down next to her. She could 
have, when it suited her, a charming and 
irresistible way. Everyone felt the change in 
her and at once the tension in the atmosphere 
relaxed. M’amselle’s anxious face smoothed 
into an expression of content; Bee squeezed 
Jeanne’s hand under the table, murmured a 
low “ Hurray ” and passed the bread. Ruth 


50 Jeanne s House Party 

returned Carol’s smile slightly, then heaved an 
unheard sigh of thankfulness and hid the glow 
in herself by dropping her eyes. 

The supper ended just as darkness came. 
M’amselle and Mrs. Stafford sat on in their 
chairs; Bee and Jeanne, Ruth and Carol 
squeezed into a swing and started pushing it 
as they hummed some popular songs. 

Gradually they fell silent, until the only 
sounds to be heard were the soft banging of 
moths against the screens; the gay trill of a 
mandolin in a cottage around the curve; sweet 
singing from the lake where a faint twilight 
still lingered; and the rhythmic plop of oars in 
the water. 

“ Look,” Jeanne whispered. 

A great orange moon was swiftly riding up 
over dark hills, paling to silver as it mounted, 
touching the mysterious dark world with a 
lovely radiance. 

“ Isn’t it beautiful? ” Jeanne said in an awe¬ 
struck voice. 

“ Heavenly.” Bee was reverent, emotion so 
large, mixed of homesickness and joy and ap¬ 
preciation, shaking her that she was nearer to 
tears than she realized. 


Sharp Corners 51 

“ I’m simply thrilled,” Carol said, “ simply 
thrilled. It all seems so adventuresome—this 

summer, and us here together-” 

Ruth said nothing, but Jeanne, catching a 
glimpse of her gray eyes, saw that behind the 
tears, so surprisingly discovered in them, was 
a shine of happiness. 



CHAPTER III 


BREAKERS AHEAD 

Carol had entered her room with a frown 
remembering that M’amselle was no longer at 
her service and that she would have to take 
care of her own possessions. But as she looked 
around she gasped with surprise, then a quick 
flush rose to her face. Her first reaction to 
Ruth’s generosity was resentment. How 
dared she touch her things? But in a later 
cooler moment Carol realized that Ruth as a 
roommate might prove much more useful than 
sweet Jeanne whose quiet brown gaze seemed 
at times to look right through her, or than the 
blunt and outspoken Bee, who could say what 
she thought without losing her temper. Yes. 
Ruth would be the easiest to live with. 

So Carol had come down to thank Ruth in 
her most charming mood, and the older girl’s 
honest pleasure that she had taken it that way 

Carol was quick to see. There followed quite 

52 


Breakers Ahead 53 

naturally the development of a rather odd 
friendship. Ruth reveled in Carol’s personal 
beautv and the loveliness of her clothes. She 
was frank and generous in her pleasure, more 
outspoken to Carol in their room than at any 
other time, and Carol accepted this homage, 
rather loftily, it is true, but with occasional 
genuine descents to appreciation whenever 
Ruth showed an inclination to resent Carol’s 
superior manner. 

As the days went by it became more and 
more a matter of habit for Ruth to keep their 
room in order and mend for Carol. This had 
come about gradually. In the beginning 
Carol really made half-hearted attempts to do 
her share but her clumsiness and carelessness 
distressed Ruth so that she invariably shyly 
proffered help. Carol was quick to seize upon 
it, to speak the warm appreciation she felt and 
to resolve secretly that she would some day do 
something nice for Ruth. 

But if Carol side-stepped Her share of re¬ 
sponsibility in their own quarters it was im¬ 
possible to shift her burden in other places. 
For Mrs. Stafford, with only Katie to help her, 
had decided that the girls should do some part 


54 Jeanne s House Party 

of the household work. Katie, of course, did 
all the cooking, and waited on the table. The 
laundry was sent out of the house to a woman 
in the village. James drove the car and took 
care of the boats. Mrs. Stafford expected the 
girls not only to care for their own rooms but 
to help with the dishes and the cleaning down¬ 
stairs and a little bit with the running of the 
house. 

This was a disappointment to Ruth. She 
had not known how many servants Aunt Bee 
kept, but she had looked forward to an entire 
release from housework. However, after the 
first disappointment she found she was glad. 
Too much time to brood over her misfit with 
the young people would have made her desper¬ 
ately unhappy. When her hands were oc¬ 
cupied her mind was too, and besides what she 
did was so little compared to what she was 
accustomed to doing at home, that it was still 
a real vacation for her. 

Bee, of course, accepted the arrangement as 
set forth bvAunt Bee in a matter-of-fact little 

V 

manner that asked no questions and made no 
complaint, but Carol was peevish about it. 
After Mrs. Stafford had explained the ar- 


Breakers Ahead 55 

rangement the first morning she quietly told 
Carol that she was expected to dry the dishes 
for Katie that day. 

The quick color flew to Carol’s cheeks. She 
was utterly unused to an authoritative voice. 
Her own mother had been fretful with her but 
never firm, and the governesses engaged by 
Mrs. King had of course been treated as em¬ 
ployees. Carol had therefore grown up quite 
unrestrained, although she had always been 
carefully fenced about by conventions, care¬ 
fully watched over by countless highly paid 
women. 

“ Why don’t you get M’amselle to stay and 
do this sort of thing? ” she asked. Her tone 
was audacious, and disdainful. Mrs. Staf¬ 
ford’s look rested on Carol until the girl’s eyes 
dropped, then the reply came. 

“ M’amselle has plans of her own. She 
leaves us to-morrow. I think the few duties I 
require of you may be beneficial.” 

So Carol silently dried dishes beside an 
equally silent Katie who was as wise as her 
years made her. And the following day Carol 
dusted the down-stairs rooms and picked fresh 
flowers. And the third day she bought, under 


56 ^Jeanne's House Party 

Mrs. Stafford’s direction, from the vegetable 
men and butcher who came to peddle their 
wares at the back door. She handled the money 
and took care of the food until Katie had time 
to prepare it for eating. The fourth day 
Carol found herself cleaning the bathroom and 
planning the following day’s meals. After 
that, of course, she began drying dishes again. 

“ I think it’s the limit,” she confided to Ruth, 
“ that Aunt Bee with all her money shouldn’t 
have servants to do the work for her.” 

Ruth was silent. Arguing with Carol was 
always futile, for Carol quickly lost her temper. 
So Ruth, standing in her petticoat before the 
glass, absorbed in the business of arranging her 
hair, listened idly as Carol fussed. Too 
absorbed even to realize that Carol had stopped 
her talking and was watching Ruth’s efforts 
with a frown on her face. 

“ Oh, Ruth,” she cried at last, bringing her 
hands together sharply, “ don’t puff it out 
over your ears so much . 33 

Ruth paused in her work, her arm in the air, 
then the dark, unbecoming color rushed to her 
face and she turned to face Carol, her voice 
quivering. 


Breakers Ahead 


57 

“ You—you—when it’s so easy for you to 
look pretty—with your hair and your face and 
your clothes—and I try so hard—Oh! ” 

She ended in a gulp. Her hair fell in a 
mass about her shoulders and Carol stared in 
embarrassment and terror at the stricken face 
before her. Ruth shouldn’t. Oh! she shouldn’t 
lay bare her shame so. It was indecent. 

Carol’s actions were as impulsive as her 
words had been. She pushed a chair behind 
Ruth, forced her into it, caught the brush and 
began twisting and pinning the heavy hair. 

When she was through she thrust a hand 
glass into Ruth’s hands. 

“There! Now!” she cried triumphantly. 
“ That’s all I wanted! And you couldn’t seem 
to get it. Don’t you like it? ” 

Ruth confessed that she did. The huge 
masses she had so struggled to keep on either 
side of her face were done away with. Her 
hair puffed, yes, but just enough to hint that it 
was the style. Then it was coiled into a firm 
heavy knot at the back of her neck. It made 
her square face look slimmer, her short neck 
look longer, and Carol clapped her hands and 
called Bee and Jeanne in to approve. 


58 yeanne's House Party 

That was the beginning of Carol’s payment 
of her debt to Ruth. She experienced such a 
glow of warm feeling for her act that she pro¬ 
ceeded to attempt a little more. She was 
awkward and rude enough sometimes in her 
suggestions, for Carol was not bred to recog¬ 
nizing sensitiveness in anyone but herself, but 
Ruth appreciated the honesty of Carol’s desire 
to help her make the best of herself and never 
took offense. 

“ Your style is plain,” Carol squinted in a 
professional way down her nose at Ruth. 
“ What I mean is, that simple things are going 
to be more becoming to you than fluffy ruffly 
things. You must take off all floppy laces and 
things and just trim with narrow edgings. 
Your belts and sashes must be narrow and 
worn low and you must wear sport clothes as 
much as possible. You look simply ducky in 
them—pleated skirts, low-heeled shoes, simple 

shirt-waists, sweaters-” she waved her 

hands. “You know.” 

Ruth groaned. 

“ If I’d known before I came, my new 
clothes would have been different.” 

“ Fix them over. You’re smart enough.” 



Breakers Ahead 59 

So Ruth did. Carol, not liking some wool 
she had bought for herself, had flung it in a 
heap across the room. 

“ It doesn’t matter,” she said angrily. “ It’s 
too blue a green.” 

“ Dye it,” Ruth suggested. 

“ Oh mercy, no. I don’t know how and it’s 
not worth the trouble. I’ll buy more.” 

“ Aren’t you going to use this? ” 

“No. Can you?” 

“ Maybe.” 

And after Carol’s suggestion about wearing 
sweaters and skirts, Ruth got out the bottle- 
green worsted, dyed it black and knitted her¬ 
self a sweater that was most becoming to her. 
She bought herself a pair of white and black 
sport shoes, which she wore with either black 
or white stockings. Her hat, fortunately, was 
black, and though it was a stiff sailor instead of 
crushed felt, it went with her outfit very nicely. 
She ripped the waists off two of her dresses, 
the yellow and green, and pleated the skirts on 
to a belting. Then, with clean starched collars 
and cuffs in the neck and sleeves of her black 
sweater and a narrow white leather belt around 
it, she looked and felt much better dressed. 


6o 


Jeanne's House Party 

All this took time, and Ruth, sewing in her 
room, often missed informal gatherings on the 
wide verandah down-stairs. She did not care. 
No one paid any attention to her when she was 
there, so she might better stay away. Some¬ 
times she wondered just why she was fussing 
over her clothes when it was much too late to 
make a new impression on the people here, but 
there lurked in the still depths of Ruth’s con¬ 
sciousness a feeling that the summer was 
young and “ something ” was bound to happen 
before she went home. Sometime she’d be glad 
she had remodeled her wardrobe, she was sure. 
So she worked on, with hope in her heart. 

“ Oh, come on down, Ruth, leave your sew¬ 
ing. We’re all going in swimming.” This 
from Carol about ten days after their arrival. 

“ I just want to finish this skirt.” Ruth, 
her mouth full of pins, mumbled. 

“ But do it afterward.” 

Ruth shook her head, murmuring something 
about swimming afterward at the boat house if 
she got through in time. So Carol dancod out, 
stopping on her way at Jeanne’s door. 

Jeanne was reading a letter. Carol, enter¬ 
ing, noticed the envelope in her lap. It bore 


Breakers Ahead 


61 


the usual Y. M. C. A. letter-head and Carol 
knew it was from Jack. On the bed beside 
her lay another letter,—“ S. S. Galveston ” 
stamped on it in the corner. From Tom 
Kelly, probably. 

Carol had, of course, heard all about the 
heroes in Jeanne’s life. Jack Kent, Bee’s 
brother, who had rescued her from starvation 
in a cellar and persuaded Aunt Bee to adopt 
her, and Tom Kelly the sailor lad who had 
defied the laws of the sea and helped her 
smuggle aboard ship on her way to America. 
They were both much in the conversation and 
thoughts of all the girls, but particularly in 
Carol’s. It was astounding to her now that 
Jeanne should have received two letters from 
two men in uniform in the same day without 
even changing color. At the breakfast table, 
where they lay on Jeanne’s plate when she 
came down, Carol had started to tease but 
Jeanne had looked so surprised that her words 
fell flat. Discovering Jeanne reading them 
again this afternoon opened the way for more 
teasing comments but instead Carol cried: 

“ Weren’t you thrilled to hear from two men 
at once? And both of them in service? Why, 


62 


^Jeanne's House Party 

I don’t know anybody in a uniform. I wish I 
did. Weren’t you thrilledV’ 

“ I was glad,” Jeanne answered frankly. “ I 
worry about Dr. Jack all the time. He is in 
the fighting area. Of course, Tom is in dan¬ 
ger, too. He just wrote to thank me for my 
steamer letter.” 

“ Haven’t you got pictures of them? I’d 
love to see them.” 

“ Oh, yes, I have a darling one of Dr. Jack 
I wear in my watch. Bee gave it to me. But 
I have none of Tom.” 

“ In your watch—always with you,” Carol 
said with meaningful glance. “ You must be 
crazy about him.” 

Jeanne, in the act of opening her watch, 
looked up at Carol. 

“ You say such funny things. Crazy? No. 
It is just this. Without Dr. Jack I should not 
be here. He found Mother Stafford for me. 
Naturally, I love him.” 

It was so simply said that Carol grew con¬ 
fused. She stared at the laughing face in her 
hand a moment, then gave it back. 

“ He looks like a peach. I’m sure I think 
you lucky, you with two men. Well, you can’t 


Breakers Ahead 63 

have them all. I’m going to get Ted away 
from you, anyhow.” 

Jeanne’s eyes widened in surprise. 

“ Oh, don’t look so innocent, Miss Frenchy. 
You know he is gone about you. Absolutely 
nuts.” 

They were interrupted by shouts from Bee. 
The crowd was gathering at the beach, she said, 
so they hurried down to join her. At the shore 
they found Ted and Victor and all the Allens. 
Bee and Jeanne set to work at once struggling 
to swim in shallow water, while Carol, a butter¬ 
fly in her pale blue suit, laughed and chattered 
on the dock with the boys for a long time be¬ 
fore she would go in. Finally all were in ex¬ 
cept herself and Ted. She smiled at him. 

“ Let’s swim out.” 

“ Sure.” 

There were two streaks through the air, two 
splashes, then Ted’s gleaming head and Carol’s 
blue cap rose to the surface and they started 
out away from the screaming crowd near shore. 

Carol turned on her side and smiled at Ted. 

“ Hello,” she said. 

“ Hello, yourself.” 

“ You’re a wonderful swimmer.” 


64 Jeanne's House Party 

“ Same to you.” 

“ Oh! but not nearly so good as Ruth.” 

“ Uh-huh, every bit. Anyway, I like your 
suit better.” 

Carol’s light laugh rang back to shore. Mrs. 
Stafford, hearing it, looked up and called: 

“ Come back, Carol, come back.” 

Ted obediently turned. 

“ What’s your hurry? ” 

“ Your aunt called.” 

“ Maybe I didn’t hear her.” 

Ted stared in surprise. Then— 

“ Oh, all right.” 

They went out a little farther. 

“ Carol! Come ba-a-ck! ” 

Mrs. Stafford, calling again from the shore, 
frowned ever so slightly. Carol, she realized, 
was going to be difficult to manage and a little 
sigh escaped her as she realized that there would 
be a good many breakers ahead before there 
would be smooth sailing for all members of 
Jeanne’s house party. 

Carol turned leisurely. 

“ Ever go swimming by moonlight? ” she 
asked. 

“ No, did you? ” 


Breakers Ahead 65 

“ No, but I’d love to. Wouldn’t you? ” 

“ You bet.” 

“ It must be exciting. Couldn’t we do it? ” 
Sure—get the crowd.” 

“ We- 11 , it wouldn’t be safe for Bee and 
Jeanne to try it. They might get over their 
heads in the dark. But you and Vic and Ruth 
and I could. Don’t you think it would be 
fun?” 

“ Sure.” 

“ When? To-night?” 

“ Will your aunt mind? ” 

“ We can keep it a secret. She needn’t know 
everything and I’ve shown her to-day how I 
can swim.” 

“ Some pep to you,” Ted commented, his 
blue eyes regarding her curiously. 

Carol laughed gaily. 

“ Listen,” she said in a low voice, “ the moon 
comes up at seven. We go to bed at ten. 
Aunt Bee’s chauffeur will be away; and she 
will be at the card party. At eleven it should 
be exactly right—bright as day. Ruth and I 
will slip down to the boat house and meet you 
there. Are you game? ” 

“ Sure.” 



66 


"Jeanne s House Party 

“ I don’t see any harm in it, do you? ” 

Ted shook his head. 

That was the question Carol put to Ruth 
when her manner expressed an uneasiness. 
She had not had time to go swimming and when 
she told Carol so, Carol made known her plan 
for the evening. Ruth hesitated. She would 
love to oblige Carol and it did sound exciting, 
but somehow it couldn’t be right - 

“ But why not? ” 

Ruth puzzled: 

“ Maybe it’s the secret of the thing; why not 
tell Aunt Bee, Carol? I’m sure she’d let us.” 

“ Oh, then the fun would go. You old 
poke.” Carol grew cross. “ Don’t you see? 
It’s the mystery of it, the secret of it, that 
makes it spicy. Go and tell and it’s no differ¬ 
ent from a daylight affair. Everybody’d be 
there to watch.” 

Ruth would decide later, she said, but it was 
not until Carol stood in her clothes at the door 
of her room, shoes in hand, that night at eleven 
that she made up her mind. 

“ Coming? ” 

Ruth hesitated and was lost. 

“Yes, I’m coming; wait.” 



Breakers Ahead 67 

They stole on tiptoe, breathless and clutch¬ 
ing each other, to the foot of the stairs. The 
living-room was lighted. As Carol darted 
across it followed by Ruth, a voice from a chair 
in the shadows startled them. 

“ Where are you going, girls? ” 

Carol gave a soft shriek and dropped her 
shoes. 

“Oh, oh! Why, Aunt Bee!” she cried, 
confused. “ I thought you were at the 
Bridge.” 

“ I had such a headache I came home.” 
Mrs. Stafford stood before them with grave 
eyes. “ Where are you going? ” 

“ We—we were just going for a moonlight 
swim, Aunt Bee. It was so lovely out, and so 
hot up-stairs, we couldn’t sleep—and we just 
thought how refreshing-” 

Carol paused before her aunt’s steady look. 

“ Why, that may be a very good idea,” Mrs. 
Stafford said at last slowly. “ I don’t know 
why I hadn’t thought to plan a moonlight swim 
for you girls. Of course you would love it. 
Why didn’t you ask me, dear, if you wanted 
it?” 

Carol colored and said nothing. 



68 


^Jeanne s House Party 

“ I’ll just get my sweater and you can go 
right ahead as you planned. Were you going 
to the boat house? ” 

“ Yes.” 

Not another word was said as they went 
from the house to the boat house, and when 
the boys in their bathing suits leaped out from 
the shadows to meet them and then backed 
suddenly at the sight of Aunt Bee, the girls let 
her do the talking. 

“ Good-evening, Vic. Good-evening, Ted.” 

That kind grave voice! If only she had 
scolded, Carol could have been in a fury, but 
she knew no wav to combat this. 

“ Stay in as long as you like; I’m in no 
hurry” And Aunt Bee sank into a chair 
on the balcony and put her head back. No one 
saw the smile in her eyes except the man in the 
moon, and he smiled back. 


CHAPTER IV 


AN EXCITING PICNIC 

The next day Mrs. Stafford found time to 
have a quiet talk with Jeanne. She and Bee 
had waked the night before and had heard 
enough of the conversation to guess what was 
going on, but had wisely stayed in bed. So 
when Mrs. Stafford suggested that a definite 
program of events be planned for the next few 
weeks, Jeanne met it with perfect understand? 
ing. 

Mrs. Stafford explained that Carol was 
simply feeling her freedom. It was the first 
time she had been away without her mother and 
without a paid attendant shadowing her. The 
realization of it unbalanced her. Aunt Bee 
she regarded as a perfectly proper chaperone, 
but a person who was not “ on her trail,” as she 
put it. It would be easy, she thought, to “ put 
things over,” have a “ boarding-school sort of 

good time.” But she had reckoned without 

69 


70 "Jeannes House Party 

knowing Aunt Bee. Quiet and unobtrusive 
she was, but exceptionally observant and wise. 
After this last check that had been put on her, 
Mrs. Stafford knew Carol would sulk, would 
nurse her resentment, and unless she were dis¬ 
tracted from brooding over it by a whirl of 
good times it might sj)oil the summer for her 
and for them all. 

Jeanne was relieved to have her mother talk 
with her so frankly. There had been a tacit 
agreement that Jeanne should form her own 
opinions, should meet personal differences and 
difficulties as well as she could and manage her 
own house party. So she had said very little 
of her own impressions about the girls. But 
this advance opened the way and Jeanne, her 
head on her mother’s knee as they talked down 
on the boat house balcony, spoke out of a full 
heart. 

She told Mrs. Stafford, with distress in her 
eyes and voice, that Ruth was having a miser¬ 
able time. She was fixing her hair better, she 
was on a self-imposed diet, doing without 
sweets until her face should clear up, she had 
worked so hard over her clothes and she was 
much better looking, still the boys didn’t like 


An Exciting Picnic 71 

her. At the last dance she had been a wall¬ 
flower and had come home early pleading a 
headache. 

On the other hand Carol—well—Carol— 
Jeanne hesitated here. It seemed so horribly 
like tattling, but it finally had to come, be¬ 
cause Jeanne wanted counsel. Yes, the boys 

liked Carol. They flocked about her three 

%/ 

deep. It was partly because she was so pretty, 
partly her gay assured manner, but partly also 
because she was familiar with the boys—even 
smoked a bit now and then—and was, Jeanne 
thought, persuading Ruth to smoke too. 

“What shall I do? ” Jeanne clasped her 
white hands in her lap. “ What shall I do? 
Ted has talked to me. Already he doesn’t like 
her as well as he did at first. She’s hurting 
herself. Don’t you see? And if I say a word 
she tells me I’m preaching.” 

Mrs. Stafford was thoughtful. Carol was, 
indeed, dizzy with the sense of freedom. She 
was running wild. Yet Jeanne was right. A 
word from her would do no good. If she, Mrs. 
Stafford, spoke, a bad matter would be made 
worse. Carol must learn either through some 
hurting experience or—could Ted talk to her? 


72 yeanne's House Party 

But Mrs. Stafford dismissed this thought. 
He was too young. She patted Jeanne’s hand, 
smiling into the concerned face below her. 

“ Don’t worry, dear. You can’t help the 
way people are made.” 

“ But you can sometimes help the way they 
are making themselves,” Jeanne said soberly. 
“ But oh! it isn’t that! I don't want to be a 
reformer. I hate it. It’s just that my house 
party is disappointing. Half of us aren’t hav¬ 
ing a good time! ” 

“ Well, that’s just what we’re here for, you 
and I, to help them have a good time. And 
one of the best ways of doing it—for Carol at 
least—is to pack the days full of excitement. 
Why not go for a moonlight boat ride to-night? 
Or—better yet—a supper first, at the island, 
then ride home by moonlight.” 

Jeanne agreed at once and at her mother’s 
suggestion she ran down to the tennis court at 
the “ Green ” to see if Mr. Allen would take 
them in his big launch. 

She found Ted and Carol playing against 
Ruth and Victor. Ruth played a fairly good 
game for a girl, with much earnestness, but 
Carol, a beginner, made the game a social 



An Exciting Picnic 73 

event. She laughed at all her blunders, re¬ 
gardless of the fact that her indifferent playing 
was spoiling the game for the others. 

“ Come on, Carol, will you? ” Ted called. 
“ You’re in the wrong court. Stop talking 
and let’s finish this.” 

“ Don’t be so cross, Ted,” Carol flashed 
back. “ Who’s playing this game, any¬ 
way? ” 

“ Everybody but you,” the boy answered 
coolly. Carol, in a burst of anger, the first the 
young people had seen her in, flung her racquet 
on the grass and following it, she dropped in 
the shade. 

“ Come on, Bee, finish this game instead of 
Carol, will you? ” Ted called unabashed. 

“ Don’t you want to, Carol? ” Bee asked. 

“I do not. I’ll have nothing to do with 
anyone so rude as some people I know.” 

Bee laughed and took the racquet from the 
ground. She and Ruth were fairly evenly 
matched, and the score, so heavily against Ted 
before, mounted slowly in their favor until it 
was a deuce set. Finally with a flourish, Ted 
and Bee won. 

All four walked breathless and hot to the 


74 "Jeanne s House Party 

spring to get a cold drink, then they gathered 
by Jeanne and Carol and the Allens who were 
talking and laughing excitedly. 

“ What’s up? Picnic? ” Ted asked. 

“ Just that.” Jeanne turned to him eagerly. 
“We thought we’d take a picnic supper and go 
up the lake to the island. Eat it there, and 
come home by moonlight. The moon will be 
up between ten and eleven to-night.” 

“ Bully.” 

That was one of Ted’s nicest characteristics 
—his instant enthusiasm for anything that 
might come up. It was the thing that made 
him so popular. 

“ Whose launch? ” Vic inquired in his surly 
way. 

“ Allens’. You said you thought we might, 
didn’t you, Dorothy? ” 

“ I’m sure it’ll be all right,” Dorothy said. 
44 Dad will take us—he can be chaperon.” 

“ Let’s go right after our swim,” Jeanne 
cried, “ and we must hurry for that; it’s getting 
late.” 

So about six o’clock that afternoon the eight 
of them gathered on the dock of the Allens’ 
boat house with their boxes and baskets. 



An Exciting Picnic 75 

“ Where is Dad? ” Dorothy cried impa¬ 
tiently. “ He’s always late.” 

“ Coming—right here/’ her father’s deep 
voice said behind her. “ Be careful how you 
malign people, my dear.” 

He was a short stout man with the jolly 
face and twinkling eyes that usually accom¬ 
pany fatness. Just now he looked at the boys 
and girls a little soberly. 

“Well, I’m sorry to tell you-” he 

paused. 

“ Oh, what? ” 

“ Mother hasn’t said we can’t? ” 

“ The boat isn’t out of order? ” 

Mr. Allen kept them in suspense a dreadful 
moment. Then the twinkle appeared and be¬ 
fore he could say what it was he was sorry 
about, he was good-naturedly pushed into the 
boat by his nephews. 

“ No, but really,” he protested, “ I am 
sorry to tell you that it isn’t going to be a very 
nice night. The sky has clouded over and I 
don’t think there’ll be a moon. Wouldn’t you 
rather wait? ” 

“ With everything already fixed? ” 

- “ Mr. Allen! ” 



76 yeannes House Party 

“ Dad, quit your teasing.” 

“ The less moon, the better some x>eople will 
be pleased.” 

“ I see I’m in the minority.” Mr. Allen 
finally yielded and set to the business of start¬ 
ing the engine while the boys packed aw T ay the 
boxes of food and helped the girls in. 

Mr. Allen had a little difficulty and when 
they finally started the sun had set and the ex¬ 
quisite afterglow was stealing up over the sky, 
tinting the heavy scudding gray clouds in 
magnificent unbelievable colors. 

As the boat receded from shore and the cot¬ 
tages of the horseshoe settlement were lost in 
the distance, the dark pines rose a solid black 
mass against a vivid background. It was a 
picture for an artist, and Bee and Jeanne were 
the only appreciative spectators. To the 
Western girl there was a grandeur in the scene 
that was familiar to her in the vast spaces of 
her home country. It caught her by the throat, 
for a second, giving her a little twinge of home¬ 
sickness. She discovered Jeanne looking at 
her and nodded. 

“ It’s—it’s the first time the East has been 
splendid. It’s been quaint and pretty here. 


An Exciting Picnic 77 

But this is so striking—the black and the red 
of it—it reminds me of home.” 

Jeanne smiled. 

“ It makes me ache too,” she said in a low 
voice. 

“ Oh, you’d love it in Montana,” Bee 
said suddenly. “ I wish you could visit me 
there.” 

“ I expect to some day,” Jeanne answered 
laughing. “ I expect ”—she spread her hands 
—“ I expect everything—anything to happen 
to me. So much has,” she ended. 

“ Things will too,” Ruth chimed in rather 
unexpectedly. “ You’re that sort of a person. 
I’m not. I’ll go hack from here and settle 
down into the routine of High School and 
home work and wonder if I didn’t dream this 
summer.” 

The three girls had chosen to sit forward on 
the deck where they might get every bit of 
breeze and spray that came their way. 

“Are you happy, here with us, Ruth? ” 
Jeanne asked suddenly. “ Will it be a dear 
dream when you look back to it? ” 

The slow dark flush spread to Ruth’s fore¬ 
head while she tried to answer. Finally, just 


78 ^Jeanne's House Party 

as she began to stammer out something about 
its being “ too early to tell,” Ted scrambled up 
among them, and further intimacies were im¬ 
possible. 

They sped up the lake for about six miles 
to the tiny circular island which rose up in 
about the center. It was a popular picnic 
place, and there were several ready prepared 
fireplaces. The girls had brought bacon, of 
course, and corn to cook over the blaze, and 
the boys immediately went hunting for fire¬ 
wood while the girls began supper prepara¬ 
tions. 

“ We’ll have to be careful about sparks,” 
Mr. Allen said. “ There’s a heavy breeze 
sweeping down the lake and it looks to me as 
though it were going to get heavier.” 

“ Dad, dear,” Grace reproved, “ you begin 
to sound like Mother. Don’t. We’re here. 
Let’s not worry. Let’s just all have a good 
time.” 

Which they did, each in his and her own 
way. Carol, it was noticed, took no interest in 
the supper preparations. The whole affair 
looked dirty to her. Cooking bacon over a fire, 
when it either burned or dropped off in the 


jin Exciting Picnic 79 

ashes, held no tantalizing pleasure for her. She 
very conspicuously absented herself during the 
business of cutting bread and slicing bacon and 
stripping corn, and went olf to hunt for sticks 
with Ted. When they came back the others 
were eating and Ted, amidst the jeers of his 
companions, held up two sticks he had gath¬ 
ered. Carol was smiling and shrugging her 
indifference. 

Bee and Jeanne, on the other hand, 
maneuvered the outdoor meal most efficiently. 
Buth was an interested observer, for though 
she was accustomed to cooking, she was not 
used to cooking over an open fire and she 
learned a good deal as she sat watching and 
listening, ready to offer a helping hand at 
crucial moments. 

Bee was in her element. Jeanne and she, 
one out of a lifetime of experiences in camp¬ 
ing tricks, and the other out of a brief and 
difficult week in devastated France where an 
existence was wrested from nothing with al¬ 
most nothing, got the meal in progress and 
then turned to find comfortable places for 
themselves. 

It was then that Ted and Carol appeared 


80 Jeanne's House Party 

and Ted, to turn their attention from himself^ 
said: 

“ Don’t let your fire get too high. The 
sparks are flying way over to the other side of 
the island, and the trees are dry timber.” 

“ Is this state property? ” Bee asked of Mr. 
Allen. She knew something of forest fires and 
her face was serious. 

“ No, it belongs to us. We always thought 
we’d build here some day, instead of renting,” 
Mr. Allen replied. “ But we haven’t found a 
spring yet. Boys! ” he shouted to his nephews 
above the rush of wind that was now sweeping 
through the tree tops. “ Come down with me 
and see if the boat is tied all right. I thought 
I heard her knocking against the pier. Girls, 
I guess you’d better pack up and get ready to 
go back. This is a nasty wind and I don’t 
like to be out in the dark in this gale.” 

Carol pouted but Ted hushed her at once. 

“ His engine isn’t working right. He didn’t 
say it because he thought some of the girls 
might be frightened.” 

Carol turned pale. 

“ Really? ” 

” Yes, really.” Ted grabbed half a dozen 


An Exciting Picnic 81 

sandwiches before Ruth put the cover on the 
box, and with them in one hand and a banana 
in the other he leaned against a tree eating. 
He had missed the bacon and corn because of 
his stroll with Carol and he was feeling alto¬ 
gether hungry and a little annoyed. 

A shout from the shore summoned the rest 
of the boys at a run. One of the ropes had 
broken and the boat was swinging out headed 
for home, and held only by a slender length of 
another rope. It was going to be a job to haul 
the boat back alongside the dock so the girls 
could get in, and all the boys were needed, 
some to pull, others to leap to the boat and 
paddle with the two oars that were always 
left in it. 

By the time it was accomplished the girls 
had appeared, laughing excitedly. None of 
them knew anything about nervousness except 
Carol who had seen it all her days in her 
mother. She was white and silent as she 
climbed into the boat and did not join in the 
cheers as the engine finally sent out its com¬ 
forting sputter before the regular chugging 
began. 

They were off like a shot. Wind and waves 


82 


"Jeanne s House Party 

seemed to mock at the energetic little engine, 
sweeping the boat down the lake at a terrible 
rate. Bee and Jeanne glancing over the side 
of the little launch at the dark waters billow¬ 
ing past them, caught each other’s hands and 
clung tight wordlessly. 

Suddenly a voice shouted: 

“ Look! ” 

There were such fright and horror in the cry 
that they all turned, even Mr. Allen, to look 
back whence they had come. 

The island was ablaze! 

It was really a magnificent sight, for all its 
terrifying aspect. Great red flames rolling 
like a menacing army up to the sky; clouds of 
smoke blotting out the glare of the flames, then 
the fire triumphantly bursting through the cur¬ 
tain and reaching out with hungry arms to de¬ 
vour more of the little island. 

“ Oh, Mr. Allen,” Bee cried. “ What a 
shame.” 

“ Now, do you know,” he replied in his 
droll way, “ I was just thinking how lucky it 
was we never built there! ” 

They kept their faces turned toward the 
doomed island, watching fascinated as the fire 


An Exciting Picnic 83 

progressed, leaping from point to point until 
they knew for a certainty by the outline in the 
flare of the light that every bit of it was burn¬ 
ing and the place would be a gray desolate 
waste in the morning. 

The sight got Bee started talking on forest 
fires and she gave a graphic account of one that 
her father and Jack had fought to prevent its 
reaching their fields of grain. They were all 
listening breathlessly to her tale when an ex¬ 
clamation from Mr. Allen interrupted them. 

“ Engine’s gone dead,” he announced. 

An unexpected glimpse of Carol’s white face 
near a lantern led him to add: 

“We’re more than half-way home; it’s a 
straight line to our dock and the wind and 
waves were doing most of the work any¬ 
way.” 

The little party fell silent and the boat, with 
the red blaze behind it and blackness before it, 
sped on down the lake. Mr. Allen stood up, 
his solid square figure braced against the wind, 
the steering wheel gripped in both hands. 

“I’m not sure I can get into the slip,” He 
said in a low voice to his nephew Pink. “ It’s 
a swift right hand turn and the waves will 



84 "Jeanne s House Party 

spoil it. I’m afraid I’ll go aground and the 
boat will be knocked to pieces before morning. 
Guess we will have to try for the Club House 
dock.” 

“ It’s a little more sheltered in that curve of 
the shore. You probably wouldn’t crash so 
hard,” Pink rejoined. 

“ What I thought. You watch sharp, Pink; 
we’re getting there. I can distinguish cottage 
lights. Yes, people are putting lanterns out 
on all the docks to guide us. Good! That 
helps. Here, Pink, help me turn her to the 
left. Now, hold hard! Be ready to jump, 
boys; got the ropes in your hands ? All right, 
—give her a twist over the first post—Don’t 
let us get by—Now! ” 

Ted and Victor leaped as a tremendous wave 
caught the little launch and hurled it at the 
Club House dock. In a second the little craft 
was tied fast but pitching from side to side in 
the heavy sea. 

Bee looked up at the dock and laughed. 
“ How will we ever get out now we’re here? ” 
she asked. 

Anxious faces leaned down out of the dark¬ 
ness. Mrs. Stafford’s, Ted’s mother’s, Mrs. 


An Exciting Picnic 85 

Allen’s. Ted pushed the waiting figures back 
and, with Vic beside him, held out his hand. 

“ When the boat rocks toward the dock,” 
he shouted, “ you can reach our hands. Grab, 
pull and jump. We’ll be ready! ” 

It was quite a stunt but it was fun for all 
but Carol. When she finally reached the dock 
she collapsed in a faint at the feet of Mrs. 
Stafford. 


CHAPTER V 


THE HOUSE PARTY GROWS 

Carol’s fainting caused quite a little excite¬ 
ment. She was unconscious for only a few 
moments and was able to walk back to the 
cottage with Ted and Victor supporting her on 
either side, but she went right to bed when 
she got there. Ruth went with her, and before 
Carol went to sleep Ruth rubbed her head with 
camphor, chafed her hands and arms gently, 
brought her an ice cold drink of grape juice 
and generally fussed over her rather unneces¬ 
sarily. 

It had the effect of making Carol believe she 
was of much more importance and in more 
delicate health than she really was. Scraps of 
her mother’s conversation came to memory. 
She recollected gestures and complaints and 
poses and for the next few days quite enjoyed 
playing invalid. Ruth, liking to nurse, and 

accustomed to taking care of people, fell into 

86 


The House Party Grows 87 

tHe role of willing attendant quite easily. She 
was deft and capable. She possessed a smooth, 
cool, light touch and enjoyed Carol’s praise as 
much as Carol enjoyed her massages. And it 
seemed to her hungry heart that her service 
was strengthening the band of friendship be¬ 
tween them. 

An incident, slight in itself, served to draw 
these two closer together, at the same time that 
it separated them from Bee and Jeanne’s com¬ 
panionship. Mrs. Stafford, watching this new 
development in Carol with wise eyes, told Bee 
and Jeanne privately to ignore Carol’s com¬ 
plaints, to laugh at her if necessary, and to try 
to get her back to a normal healthy point of 
view regarding herself. 

An exceedingly hot day had put a stop to a 
climb up a neighboring mountain. The girls 
were in the cool gray living-room of the cottage 
after lunch, reading until swimming hour. 
Carol rose languidly, and with a hand on the 
chairs as she passed to steady herself, moved 
uncertainly toward the couch. 

“ This heat nauseates me,” she murmured. 

“ Are you dizzy, Carol? ” Ruth asked anx¬ 
iously. 


88 


^Jeanne's House Party 

Carol nodded, slender fingers pressed 
against her forehead, her lips compressed as 
though in pain. 

“ Oh, can it, Carol,” Bee said. 

Carol opened indignant eyes but remember¬ 
ing her part, closed them again. 

“ My dear,” she murmured, “ I’m so sorry 
to distress you. This feeling is new to me. 
Perhaps after I’ve gotten used to it I shall be 
able to bear it better.” 

She could, in the instant, picture herself a 
chronic invalid, sweet and weary and palely 
beautiful. It was rather interesting. 

“ You are—what you call—bluffing,” Jeanne 
said seriously. “.You should be an actress,” 
she added. 

“ I shall have to go up-stairs, Ruth,” Carol 
said weakly; “the atmosphere is unsympa¬ 
thetic. It gets on my nerves and makes me 
worse. Don’t come. Please don’t bother.” 

But Ruth did come, indignant at Jeanne and 
Bee, utterly unaware that Carol’s whole speech 
had been stolen verbatim from her mother. 

Bee burst out laughing. Jeanne, with her 
finger on her lips, laughed too, silently. Mrs. 
Stafford entered, heard the story and with 



"The House Party Grows 89 

a twinkle in her eyes guaranteed to cure 
Carol. 

Carol lay on her bed up-stairs all the after¬ 
noon with Ruth beside her reading to her and 
fanning her. Bee and Jeanne went in swim¬ 
ming. Before they returned Carol heard a 
man’s voice down-stairs talking to Aunt Bee. 
It was unfamiliar and for a long time the girls 
listened trying to catch a word, but the mur¬ 
mur was undistinguishable. 

Suddenly the voice was in the living-room, 
on the stairs, and Aunt Bee, pausing at Carol’s 
door, announced with a grave face that she had 
felt she must call a doctor. 

He gave her a thorough examination, asked 
her many questions, and then snapped his 
glasses off and looking at her with keen gray 
eyes said abruptly: 

“ You have imaginitis. With proper en¬ 
couragement from this young lady,” he looked 
at Ruth, “ vou will soon be an utter bore to 
everyone about you and a useless piece of bric- 
a-brac to the world in general. The thing for 
you to do is get up.” 

He waited long enough to see the color rush 
to Carol’s face. 


go Jeanne's House Party 

“ Don’t like what I said, do you? It’s true 
enough. I’m an old man, my dear, and I know 
women inside and out. You may be able to 
fool these folks but you can’t fool me.” Then 
without another word for her he stood talking 
to Aunt Bee for about fifteen minutes, moved 
abruptly to the door, turned then and said 
gruffly: 

“ Get up now, and go swimming.” 

Down-stairs he told Mrs. Stafford that 
Carol had fainted from hunger (she had eaten 
little or no supper at the picnic) and fright. 

There was nothing, of course, for Carol to do 
but drop her attitude of frailty. Although she 
did not go swimming that afternoon and told 
Ruth the doctor was probably a country 
ignoramus because she had been assured at 
home that she inherited her mother’s weak con¬ 
stitution, she could not meet Ruth’s eyes. 

For Ruth was at the roots of her nature 
sensible and sincere. There was really no 
doubting the gruff doctor and there was a 
creeping doubt of Carol. She hated herself 
for it, but there it was. However, she pos¬ 
sessed a strong sense of loyalty and a friend¬ 
ship was not a thing to be trifled with, so she 


!The House Party Grows 91 

gave her wonder no opportunity to grow and 
agreed with Carol promptly. 

But Carol had felt Ruth’s momentary hesi¬ 
tation and burst out pettishly: 

“ Oh! go ’way! Go ’way! Don’t you see 1 
want to be alone? ” 

The dull color rose slowly to Ruth’s face. 
Without a word she rose and with her bathing 
suit in hand, went down to the boat house. A 
solitary swim did not soothe her hurt feelings 
and the first little stiffness crept up between 
herself and Carol. 

Hot weather, which kept the girls shut in the 
shadowed house together and successfully 
ended all plans for social activities in the day¬ 
time, made a difficult business more difficult. 
The weather was unbearable. Day after day 
of scorching breathless sunshine when even the 
water in the lake was so warm as not to be 
refreshing, and night after night of intermi¬ 
nable sticky hours. 

No one wanted to dance, even, and the little 
Club House was deserted, the Victrola was 
stilled, as listless young people sat on the rocks 
near the water’s edge trying to maintain an 
appearance of politeness and interest. 


92 


Jeanne's House Party 

But it was hard to do. The girls, cooped up 
through the noontime heat of successive days, 
found their tongues getting edgy. 

Ruth, whose solid weight made the hot 
weather more uncomfortable for her than any¬ 
one, lounged about the cottage in a spotted 
kimono, her black hair oily with perspiration, 
her face shining. She “ didn’t care a hang.” 
It was too “ beastly hot to think about looks.” 
She had to “ struggle enough ” when she went 
out, but she’d be “ jiggered ” if she’d stay “ all 
dolled up ” in the privacy of the cottage. 

“ You ought at least to think of others, if 
you won’t think of yourself,” Carol flashed. 
“ We have to sit and look at you.” 

Carol spent most of her time washing her¬ 
self. She was always cool looking, with her 
fair hair and clear pink complexion, and she 
managed somehow to look at ease when the 
others were miserably hot. She could stay 
dressed in white the entire day and by evening 
be as immaculate as she was in the morning. 

She was as maddening a spectacle to Ruth 
as Ruth was to her, and the two of them began 
digging at each other. 

“ If I wanted to monopolize the bathroom, 


The House Party Grows 93 

I could look cool too,” Ruth said. “ You were 
in there two hours this morning. How you 
take so long-” 

“ Reading in the bathtub,” Bee made a ven¬ 
ture, not at all to rouse Carol, but in a vain 
effort to turn the conversation. “ What was 

vour book? ” 

•/ 

But Carol misunderstood. She took Bee’s 
random guess as an accusation and her temper, 
variable at best, boiled over. She was lying on 
the couch, a book in her hand, and as Bee 
spoke, she raised her arm and hurled the book 
at Bee’s head. 

“ That, if you must know everything— 
prowling and peeping at me-” 

But she stopped suddenly. The book had 
hit Bee on the cheek and a red gash appeared 
suddenly. Carol was as much frightened by 
that as she was by the whiteness of the rest of 
Bee’s face which bent over her the next second. 
Bee shook her until her teeth rattled, little 
drops of blood dropping down on her white 
dress and frightened face, then, still in a silent 
anger, Bee fled to her room. 

Ruth and Jeanne sat transfixed. The whole 
affair had transpired in less than a moment. 




94 


"Jeanne s House Party 

Carol was the first to recover. WitH a 
shiver of disgust at the spots of blood on her, 
she rose and walked with dignity up to her 
room. Ruth’s mouth closed slowly and she 
looked questioningly at Jeanne. 

The little French-American girl sat still, 
small hands tightly clasped in her lap, her large 
brown eyes with fires smouldering in their 
depths, following Carol’s slow exit from the 
room. When she had gone Jeanne drew a 
shivering breath, caught her under lip in her 
teeth and ran from the room toward the boat 
house, but not before Ruth had caught a 
glimpse of large tears splashing down a white 
face. 

A few moments later Mrs. Stafford ap¬ 
peared, a letter in her hand. 

“ Why, where has everyone gone? ” she 
asked. 

“ Bee and Carol are up in their rooms and 
J eanne went to the boat house, I think.” 

Mrs. Stafford gave Ruth a keen look, but 
asking no more questions, she went to the boat 
house after Jeanne. 

She found her curled up in the hammock, 
her dark eyes gazing somberly out over the blue 


!The House Parly Grows 95 

water, her bobbed hair clinging in moist curls 
to her face and neck. 

With a smile of greeting, Mrs. Stafford 
drew a rocking-chair up to the hammock, and, 
sitting down, pulled the letter from its 
envelope. 

“ It’s from Mrs. Johnson,” she explained. 
“ Troubles seem to pile upon her. Little 
Margaret has scarlet fever.” 

“ Oh! ” Jeanne’s little gasp was all of pity. 
Her own affairs forgotten for the moment, she 
sat up to hear the news. 

Harry and Steve had not been exposed. 
They had been away for the week-end camp¬ 
ing when the doctor pronounced the baby’s 
illness scarlet fever, and on their return a 
neighbor had taken them in. But the neighbor 
already had her hands and house full and could 
not keep the boys more than two or three days. 
Mrs. Johnson was almost frantic trying to de¬ 
cide where she could put them. 

Mrs. Stafford laid down the letter and 
looked at Jeanne. 

“ I was wondering if we could help in any 
way,” she remarked. 

“To have them here, you mean,” Jeanne 


96 yeanne's House Party 

smiled at her mother. “ You precious beauti¬ 
ful. That’s what you want to do, but you want 
me to want them too. Mother, cherie , how you 
do manage to smooth out all my churned up in¬ 
sides! Just to look at you is cream-pie.” 

She considered the proposition a moment, 
then laughed a bit ruefully. 

“ I don’t see how it could make matters 
worse to have them up. We’re all fighting 
like Kilkenny cats now. Is that a thunder- 
cloudy Mother? ” 

Jeanne sat up excitedly, peering across the 
blue to the hills’ dark tops where a shadow or a 
cloud was hanging menacingly. 

“ I believe it is. The paper predicted a 
storm and cooler weather.” 

“ That settles it. If it gets cooler the boys 

can come. At least-” Jeanne stopped 

suddenly. Her mother looked a question but 
Jeanne shook her head. She had been going 
to say that at least the boys’ presence would 
make Ruth dress, but she checked it. 

The storm burst upon them at supper time. 
With the w T ind lashing the rain against the 
windows and the lake churned into a gray fury, 
the girls forgot for the moment their differ- 



The House Party Grows 97 

ences, and the stiffness that had made them ex¬ 
ceedingly polite throughout the meal vanished 
in the groans of relief as coolness crept into 
the stuffy rooms. 

It was then that Jeanne announced the 
pending arrival of two more guests. They 
had all heard of Harry and Steve and when 
they were told that a telegram would be sent 
and the boys would probably arrive the follow¬ 
ing afternoon, excitement reached a high pitch. 

“ Thank goodness for some new boys! ” 
Carol cried, a flush on each cheek. “ Vic’s 
such a bear—and Ted—I used to think he was 
funny but he’s worn out all his jokes, and his 
manners—I don’t know what’s happened to 
them. He used to be beautifully polite. 
Now he never even thinks of getting up when I 
come around.” 

Jeanne and Bee exchanged glances that 
Carol did not see. The reason for Ted’s lapse 
in manners was clear enough to them. 

“ How old are they, Jeanne? ” Carol rushed 
in. “Nearly sixteen and seventeen? Oh! 
how exciting! Harry is the good-looking one, 
isn’t he? The fusser? ” 

It was interesting to Mrs. Stafford, listen- 




98 Jeanne s House Party 

ing quietly in a corner, to note that Bee’s en¬ 
thusiasm sounded a quite different note. 
With two more boys, there’d be enough for 
them to get up a baseball team, boys versus 
girls, and oh! couldn’t they have a meet? A 
field meet, only have water sports too ? There 
could be canoe races and swimming races and 
tub races and a greased pole and the baseball 
game to end up with—or begin with, which¬ 
ever — 

Up to this point Ruth had been silent. The 
coming of the boys meant but one thing for 
her—an agony of self-consciousness and em¬ 
barrassment here in the cottage, the one place 
where she had begun to feel at ease. She was 
not glad, not at all glad they were coming. 
They liked Jeanne already, they would “ fall ” 
for Carol, as the boys all did, and they would 
treat Bee like a jolly sister. Ruth would be 
in the way- 

Her dreary thoughts were reflected in her 
face but at Bee’s suggestion of a Regatta her 
eyes lit up. That would be fun. And pos¬ 
sibly she would have her chance to shine. She 
was the best girl swimmer, except for Carol, 
and she did believe on long distances she could 




'±he House Party Grows 99 

beat her. At any rate, she could dive the 
best. 

And possibly—just possibly—these boys 
would be “ different.” They might not judge 
a girl by her slimness and fairness. They 
might be able to see that sometimes there was 
no virtue beneath beauty—Ruth was thinking 
of Carol—and sometimes there was hidden 
gold beneath a plain exterior. 

It was her dream that somewhere existed the 
“ different ” boy and sometime she and he 
would meet. 

Mightn’t it happen this summer, after all, 
at this house party which had seemed when she 
had looked forward to it like the golden gate 
to paradise. Mightn’t it be for them she had 
worked so hard to renovate her clothes? 

So her enthusiasm over the prospect of the 
new guests, though belated, was sincere enough 
to satisfy Jeanne who had rather anxiously 
laid the proposal before her different guests. 

Her flashing look to her mother was one of 
triumph. The boys would receive a warm 
welcome. She could trust them to keep it 
warm. Mrs. Stafford sent a telegram that 
night asking the boys to come the next day. 





CHAPTER VI 


GAIETIES BEGIN 

The next day a stiff north breeze blew from 
the hills down the length of the lake. The 
waters were a deep blue capped with frothy 
white, the green pines, their fragrance drawn 
out by the warm sun, flung it far and wide 
joyously. The hills, purpled by shadows 
from swift masses of clouds, seemed in the clear 
light to have crept closer about Lake Sunna- 
pine, as though guarding its beauty more 
jealously than ever. It was, indeed, as the 
four girls decided on the wind-swept verandah, 
a “ perfect day.” 

Jeanne, in a black sweater pulled over a black 
and white wool skirt with black and white sport 
shoes on her slim feet, stood on the porch and 
stretched out her arms to the wind, laughing 
and blushing in a little self-consciousness at 
her act. 

Bee, from the swing, regarded her curiously. 

100 


101 


Gaieties Begin 

What a darling she was, she thought. The 
two of them had formed a very real friendship 
and as if in cognizance of the fact, Jeanne 
turned to her cousin and tried to explain her 
action. 

“ I am so happy,” she put her hand on her 
heart as she spoke and lowered her voice 
though they were alone on the porch, Ruth and 
Carol not having come down yet. “ I have 
such a queer feeling that something wonder¬ 
ful is going to happen—not to-day, but soon. 
Perhaps it’s just because I think we are all 
going to get along better here.” She nodded 
up-stairs. 

Bee thrust her hands deep in the pockets of 
her heavy red sweater. It was opened down 
the front over her white dress. Pier short 
black hair was blowing wildly about her cheeks. 

“ There’s a lull in the storm anyway,” she 
cried cheerfully. “ A signed truce while the 
boys are here. Let’s make ’em stay! ” 

As they probably would stay for six weeks, 
Jeanne suddenly realized her duties as hostess 
would be arduous. There must be “ something 
doing ” all the time. In a businesslike way 
she went in to get pad and pencil as Ruth and 



102 


Jeanne s House Party 

Carol appeared, and while they were waiting 
for Katie to call them to breakfast they started 
to plan a good time menu. 

“ Everybody give suggestions. You first, 
Bee.” 

Bee promptly suggested sailing that day. 
After consulting with Mrs. Stafford, Jeanne 
found out that a sailboat could be hired in the 
village. Arrangements were at once made 
over the telephone and Jeanne announced 
triumphantly at the breakfast table that that 
was settled. It was Carol’s turn next. 

Carol, looking very attractive in a brown 
wool jersey dress, the skirt pleated in countless 
tiny pleats, the overblouse, with a bright 
orange bow at the neck, and some gay em¬ 
broidery on the broad belt in front, was as 
prompt as Bee with her suggestion. 

“ Let’s go to the park to dance to-morrow 
night. Couldn’t we, Aunt Bee? You’ve 
promised us for a long time we might. These 
little dances at the Club are so—so—home¬ 
made. I want a real orchestra for a change.” 

Aunt Bee’s consent being given, attention 
was turned to breakfast. Katie’s hot corn- 
bread brought exclamations of delight from the 




Gaieties Begin 103 

girls who had soon discovered that the best 
way to get on with Katie was to give her large 
doses of her own blarney. Katie, her nose in 
the air over their foolishness, her pleasure at 
their flattery poorly concealed, filled the plate 
three times. 

After breakfast was over the girls went on 
with their planning. Ruth suggested a picnic 
at Glen Lake, a place they had talked of ex¬ 
ploring for many days. It was the next of a 
chain of seven lakes all of which emptied into 
Lake Sunnapine. It was reached by motor 
boat and a short walk through woods of a mile 
or so. It meant a picnic and the going and 
coming would consume a full day. 

Jeanne wanted to climb Bear Cat Mountain. 
It could be seen from the village, looming 
higher than any other about them. To get on 
the trail up they would have to go in auto¬ 
mobiles fifteen miles to the next town north, 
which lay at the base of Bear Cat. 

This also would consume a day. 

Once given the impetus it was not hard to 
plan activities. There were to be tennis 
tournaments, baseball games, beach parties, 
Field Meets and Regattas,—eveiything that 


104 "Jeanne's House Party 

four inventive imaginative girls hungry for 
good times could think of—with plenty 
of dancing and swimming sprinkled in be¬ 
tween. 

As Jeanne saw Carol’s interest brighten her 
and send chasing that scornful dissatisfied look 
that lay so often on her face she blamed herself 
for not having done this sooner and yet it was 
not entirely her fault. The heat had inter¬ 
fered. Jeanne realized that Aunt Bee was 
right. So long as Carol was interested she 
was charming. And so long as she was agree¬ 
able Ruth’s pleasure was at least half-way 
assured. Jeanne regretfully admitted to her¬ 
self that it must be some miracle now that 
would give Ruth the kind of a good time she 
knew she had dreamed of, but at least her 
happiness in the house, which rested entirely 
with the girls, could be managed. Jeanne felt 
that Ruth was counting a good deal on this 
unexpected friendship with Carol. It was 
flattering and pleasant in many ways—so long 
as Carol was content. Jeanne thought her 
part in Ruth’s joy lay in seeing that Carol 
didn’t hurt or disappoint her, lay in keeping 
her interested. At any rate, if Carol ever 




A Sailboat with Its White Sails Billowing 

















Gaieties Begin 105 

should turn mean, she and Bee would stand by 
Ruth. This they had decided in one of their 
many Avhispered conversations in bed when 
lights were out. 

That afternoon the fun began. The four 
girls, with Ted and Vic and Mrs. Stafford 
piled into the big limousine and went racing 
in a cloud of dust down to the station to meet 
the four o’clock train. The formality of intro¬ 
ductions was dispensed with in a breezy haste 
characteristic of the modern young person of 
to-dav. 

Harry and Steve, dusty and dishevelled, 
forgot their apprehension at the thought of 
being with four girls when they saw Vic and 
Ted tumbling out of the car to greet them like 
old friends. And when the car drew up at a 
dock in the channel and they saw a sailboat 
with its white sails billowing in the breeze the 
guests grinned happily at Jeanne and vouch¬ 
safed a deeply breathed: 

“ Gee!” 

Mrs. Stafford went home in the car, entrust¬ 
ing the eight young people to a weather-beaten 
old man who was a familiar landmark in the 
village of Sunnapine. 


i°6 Jeanne's House Party 

“ Take care of them, Dick. Don’t let them 
do any monkey shines.” 

Dick promised solemnly with a slow wink to 
the young crowd, and woof! they were off! 

They tacked up to the island which they had 
not seen since the day of the fire. Its gaunt, 
brown pines, thrusting stiff arms up against a 
blue sky, spoiled the beauty about them. 
They looked away from the devastated place, 
circled it and swooped back toward the beach 
like a bird in flight. 

Three times they did this and on their last 
return, as the sun dropped behind the hills, the 
breeze sank suddenly. The sails, a moment 
before crackling and snapping in the wind, 
flapped a sad farewell to the day’s rioting. 

The boys tossed pennies to see who should 
pole them ashore and the luck went against 
the guests with Ted and Vic grinning derisively 
at them. Harry and Steve shed their coats, 
flung their long dark locks out of their eyes and 
set vigorously to the business of getting ashore. 

The girls sat laughing up at them with their 
arms trailing in the water, and in the minds of 
each was the same thought. How good-look¬ 
ing these boys were! Their efforts sent a rich 


Gaieties Begin 107 

color flooding their tanned cheeks, their eyes 
were bright, their muscles corded in their arms, 
their stalwart figures poised bravely against a 
turquoise sky. They were a contrast to the 
fair-haired twins, Vic and Ted, and were 
utterly unconscious of their charm. 

It took them an hour to pole to shore. The 

bovs wanted a swim and Mrs. Stafford didn’t 

%/ 

have the heart to refuse them, so they scurried 
down to the boat house while the girls dashed 
to their rooms to dress for dinner and the even¬ 
ing. They had been invited over to the Van 
Tynes’ for singing and pop-corn before a fire. 

At Carol’s suggestion Ruth wore a white 
pleated skirt with a deep yellow sport sweater 
and yellow silk stockings. She had washed her 
hair that morning and had it up in curlers while 
she was dressing. When she finally went 
down-stairs—the last girl to appear—every¬ 
one exclaimed that she had never looked so 
well. 

It was true. Her skin, cleared by a self- 
imposed diet, had tanned a beautiful tan, and 
to-night, with a new feeling of self-confidence 
and excitement, her great eyes were blazing like 

stars. At the supper table she didn’t say much 

/ 


108 Jeanne s House Party 

but she was conscious of Steve’s gaze on her 
and her heart fluttered happily. Perhaps it 
was to happen! Perhaps Steve was the dif¬ 
ferent one. 

In the confusion after dinner of getting on 
wraps and starting off, Ruth found herself be¬ 
side Steve. (Carol had appropriated Harry 
and gone ahead. Bee and Jeanne followed.) 
At once she became terrified. What to say? 
Her tongue dried, her breath came fast. 
Steve, no longer turning admiring eyes on her, 
hurried along by her side, his glance seeking 
out Jeanne’s curly head of bronze topping a 
white sweater she had drawn over a lavender 
dress. Ruth’s heart sank and as she reached 
the Van Tynes’ big living-room softly aglow 
with Japanese lanterns and the young people 
milled about with a pretended carelessness until 
they were next whom they wanted, she sank 
into the nearest chair and remained fastened 
there in a dreary despair. 

It was no good, absolutely no good. Her 
best effort wasted because she couldn’t talk. 
It wasn’t looks alone. She had been good- 
looking. It was because she couldn’t laugh 
and chatter and be frivolous. Look at Carol 


Gaieties Begin 109 

over there, acting like a fool, fussing with her 
hair, saying silly nothings, but a group of boys 
about her were snatching a dance card back and 
forth among them scribbling their names in 
furiously for the next night. Carol’s voice 
came to her ears clear, light, laughing. 

“You’re ridiculous! Nobody has dance 
cards. Indeed I shan’t keep it. See!” she 
tossed it lightly into the fire. “ There it goes! 
First come, first served! That’s all.” Hum¬ 
ming a gay little air she walked away care¬ 
lessly. Imagine! Walking away from boys! 

Ruth knew she would have stayed, feverishly 
trying to keep them all about her. And would 
she have thrown away a dance card? Never! 
Perhaps it was that—“ I don’t care ” about 
Carol. Look! they were all following after. 
Somebody bringing the handkerchief and scarf 
that Ruth knew she had deliberately dropped. 

Ruth’s eyes turned to Bee. A different 
picture here. Bee was sitting on the arm of 
a chair, an arm flung over the back of it, her 
feet stretched before her. The fire was at her 
back outlining in its red light her dark head; 
one fair hand was describing circles in the air. 
Steve, leaning forward, listening eagerly, was 


no 


"Jeanne s House Party 

lost to the crowd as Bee told how she had first 
learned to use a lasso. She had on a white 
dress, her best, but one of the simplest to be 
seen. Distinctly clothes didn’t matter here. 

Ruth rose and hoping no one saw her 
solitary state, slipped to the rear of the house. 
There were voices here, people getting butter 
and salt and pop-corn. She could always be 
useful, if not ornamental. Ah! Here were 
Jeanne and Harry, alone. Too late she 
ducked back. Jeanne had seen her and gaily 
summoned her to her side. Feeling terribly 
in the way, Ruth joined the two, a silent 
listener to the conversation. Jeanne had 
slipped a hand through Ruth’s arm and there 
was no possible escape. 

She stood by, watching in silent admiration 
and envy Jeanne’s sweet expressive face. 
There was a sweetness in Jeanne’s eyes that 
Carol lacked, and ease that the downright Bee 
did not possess. Jeanne could be an interest¬ 
ing talker or an eager listener. Carol never 
listened. Bee did, but she didn’t know how to 
keep on listening, how to draw people out, as 
Jeanne did. But that didn’t matter with 
Bee, because she was such a chatterbox. She 


Ill 


Gaieties Begin 

could talk endlessly, and always say some¬ 
thing. 

Yes, Jeanne had what Ruth wanted. 
Jeanne had charm—that rare something that 
seems to combine personality, brains and 
beauty. 

Ruth looked down at her hand resting on 
Jeanne's slim arm and she sighed. It was 
square and brown and ugly—like the rest of 
her. It was all useless. She wished she could 
hurry up and grow old and be content with 
her dreams, with looking on at life. Perhaps 
being an old maid wasn’t so awful once you 
were. You could at least pretend you had a 
romance, but now! bah! whom could she fool? 
Not even herself with this beastly lump of 
tears in her throat. 

It was a wretched evening for Ruth. There 
was no piano in the cottage, so she was not 
needed there. The popping of corn was too 
simple a matter to require skillful cooking. 
Besides it was so hot a business that they had 
to take turns. When it came to stunts Bee 
and the Allen girls were always in the middle 
of things with the boys. Carol held herself 
aloof fastidiously, Jeanne because she claimed 


112 


Jeanne's House Party 

she was stupid about untying knots and guess¬ 
ing riddles. But with Ruth it was sheer 
fright—self-consciousness—that kept her on 
the outside of the fun. Finally when her lone¬ 
liness grew too great to be borne, she slipped 
unobserved out of the house and stole home. 
On the verandah she met Aunt Bee and mum¬ 
bling—“ headache ” she reached the privacy of 
her room before the tears came. 

No one noticed her absence for a while. 
Jeanne was the first to miss her and asked Bee 
in a low voice where she was. Quietly they 
hunted around and at last concluded to make 
up a headache story for her when it came time 
to say good-night. 

Which Jeanne did so well that no one sus¬ 
pected. But on the way home through the 
woods, she caught Bee’s arm and signalled her 
to let Carol go ahead with the two boys. 

“You understand, Bee? ” 

Bee nodded soberly. 

“ What can I do? ” 

“ I don’t know.” 


CHAPTER VII 


THE SPOOK HOUSE 


What Jeanne did was to get hold of the 
boys individually, Vic and Ted, Steve and 
Harry, Pink and Rodney, and talk to them as 
earnestly and honestly as they had never been 
talked to by a girl. They were genuinely sur¬ 
prised at Jeanne’s attitude, accustomed rather 
to having each girl look out for her own popu¬ 
larity and let bad luck take the hindmost. But 
they were finally made to see what Jeanne 
honestly believed, that in a way they shared 
her duty as hosts. They must see to it that 
Ruth enjoyed herself at the dance at the park. 
She had with great difficulty been persuaded 
to go. 

The big steamer stopped at the Club House 
dock at seven—sunset hour. After it had 
picked up everyone from the point, it moved 
silently around the lake, making about four 
stops in all, to take people to the park. 


ii4 Jeanne s House Party 

The night was beautiful. There was no 
moon but millions of stars shining clearly in 
the heavens lighted the darkness. As well as 
it could be managed, Jeanne kept Ruth beside 
her, and the rest of the boys and girls around, 
singing all the way over. 

The pavilion was open to the air except for 
the roof. To it swarmed boys and girls and 
men and women from all the neighboring 
towns. It was filled with all kinds of people 
and was a revelation to Carol. She was at first 
disgusted to be so close to these queerly 
dressed, odd-mannered county folk, but de¬ 
cided at last to enjoy it as she had been the 
one to urge it, so she spent a good deal of her 
time laughing at them, audibly commenting on 
their crudities. 

For Ruth the evening was not the usual 
dreadful one. Harry and Steve both danced 
with her and thev were so full of enthusiasm 
over everything that conversation seemed to 
move along easily enough. Then came Ted 
and Victor—they had learned to do their 
“ duty dance ” rather decently—and that was 
four gone, with the Allen boys to look forward 
to. Later Ruth was swept along in a jolly 



TShe Spook House 115 

crowd from the outdoor pavilion where the 
dancing was going on, down to the soda foun¬ 
tain under the trees. Here Ted, who was 
standing the treat, suddenly discovered he 
possessed only a lonely dime. Not one whit 
abashed he gaily ordered “ one lemonade with 
five straws ” and, grave as a judge, passed the 
glass down the line of giggling girls he had so 
politely invited, counting with deep concern 
and an eye to his own happiness, the number of 
swallows each was allowed. 

When half the glass was emptied he coolly 
finished the contents and marched back up the 
hill with his arm through two of the girls’. 

Carol, of course, disappeared during the 
evening in the darkness of the trees, with 
Harry. She reappeared once or twice, to dis¬ 
appear with a different partner. Bee grunted 
disgustedly. Jeanne grew a little anxious as 
the warning whistle from the boat came up to 
them for the last time. Mrs. Stafford finally 
sent the boys scouring in different directions. 
They were all to meet at the dock in five 
minutes. When they gathered breathless and 
hot at the gangplank, later, they were all an¬ 
noyed to see Carol’s face with its cool smile 


n6 "Jeanne s House Party 

looking down at them from the upper deck. 
Ted was beside her. 

“We thought you were going to miss the 
boat,” she called. 

“ Why in time don’t ya stay with the 
crowd? ” Victor demanded in hot anger of his 
brother. “ Make Mrs. Stafford worry and she 
has to send us flying all over the park for you.” 

Ted answered nothing but his glance spoke 
volumes. It touched Carol significantly, as he 
shrugged his shoulders. No one but Mrs. 
Stafford saw his silent reply to his brother but 
her face was grave as she listened to Carol’s 
pert reply, meant for her, but given to Victor. 

“ We aren’t in the kindergarten.” 

Up on the deck Jeanne called for silence a 
moment and when she could be heard, she said: 
“ About the picnic at Glen Lake to¬ 
morrow -” 

“ Oh! Pink savs there are haunted houses 
over there! ” Dorothy cried. “ Do we want to 
go? ” 

There was a chorus of cries, dissenting and 
assenting. But the more curious won the vote. 
So it was decided they should start early in the 
morning and have an all day picnic. 



!The Spook House 117 

The next day was glorious with sparkling 
blue waters and brilliant gold sunshine, and 
the distant hills changing from deep green to 
rich purple under the shadowy clouds. 

An hour’s boat ride in two bouncing motor 
boats brought them to the little deserted village 
in a bay of the lake. Here there had once 
been an active slate quarry but the place lay 
silent now under the hot summer’s sun, livened 
only by the incessant chirping of grasshoppers 
and the buzzing of flies. 

Some dozen or more houses were scattered 
along the broad trail from Lake Sunnapine to 
Glen Lake, and these with their tumbling 
roofs, broken steps and dark windows from 
which the glass had long since disappeared, sent 
a shiver over the girls and set the boys daring 
each other to inspection. 

One house in particular standing in the cold 
dark shadow of the wood fascinated them by 
its gloom. Neglected vines had clambered up 
over the top windows, completely shutting out 
any light that might have ventured to peep in. 
Cobwebs hung in dirty thick masses from the 
eaves of the verandah, birds flew soundlessly 
in and out of the gaping lower windows, and 


n8 “Jeannes House Party 

a wayward stream of water, creeping from a 
broken pipe back of the house, had spread 
stealthily over part of the lopsided verandah, 
coating it with a slimy green moss over which 
tiny snakes and black bugs writhed and bur¬ 
rowed. 

“ Dare you to go in, Vic,” Ted cried eagerly 
to his brother. 

“ Aw! g’wan in yourself. Nothing but bats 
and snakes in there.” 

“ Spiders and mice,” added Harry with a 
teasing look at the girls. “ Let’s all go in.” 
He grasped Carol and Ruth by the hands, try¬ 
ing to pull them forward. 

The girls shivered and cried out an indignant 
protest. 

“ Double dare you, Ted,” Steve cried sud¬ 
denly, his eyes gleaming under a fallen lock of 
dark hair. 

“You mean you will if I will? ” 

Steve nodded. 

Ted gave him a curious look. This from 
Steve, the quieter of the two, was surprising, 
but Steve apparently meant business, judging 
by the look on his face. So rather reluctantly 
Ted agreed. 


u 9 


The Spook House 

“ Done. Do we go now? ” 

As Steve nodded Bee remonstrated. 

“ Oh, no, boys, please. Leave it for another 
day. We’ve got to get over to Glen Lake— 
it’s a two mile walk—and start cooking dinner, 
or we’ll never have time for a swim. Leave 
your exploring till another day. Will you? 
Or suppose we all stop on the way home; will 
that satisfy you? ” 

An apparent unwillingness to abandon the 
project effectually hid from the admiring girls 
a very real sense of relief at the boys’ mutual 
escape and when a definite promise had been 
exacted from each of them to stop on the way 
back, the party travelled on. Once out of the 
little stretch of woods with the deserted houses 
behind them, they burst out singing and whis¬ 
tling and the “ Spook House ” was forgotten 
for the time. 

Glen Lake was shaped like the figure eight. 
The second loop was the objective, for here 
there was a beautiful high bluff, open to the 
sun with short soft grass awaiting them, a well 
made fireplace and a high rock excellent for 
dining or diving purposes. For those who 
preferred wading in, a beautiful sandy beach, 


120 


'Jeanne'*s House Party 

which stretched out almost a quarter of a mile, 
offered a fine place for beginners. 

A wagon road, which led along the shore and 
passed a few summer cottages, finally brought 
them to the bluff and here preparations for 
dinner were immediately begun. Steve and 
Harry had offered to make flapjacks for this 
particular party and there had been much 
laughing skepticism as to their cooking ability. 
When it was discovered that Aunt Jemina’s 
pancake flour had been left safely tucked under 
the seat in the motor boat back on Lake Sunna- 
pine a howl of derision arose. 

“You did it on purpose! We knew you 
couldn’t cook! Good excuse!” 

Harry would have laughed off the situation 
and lazily told the crowd to make the best of 
it, but the sleeping lion in Steve was aroused. 
He was determined to go back to the lake and 
get the box and when Harry flatly refused to 
go with him, he turned to Ted. 

A significant glance unnoticed by the others 
passed between the two, and with a command 
to the girls to save some of the rest of the din¬ 
ner till they returned, the two started back. 

“ Why don’t you borrow that motor boat 


121 


The Spook House 

from the first cottage down the road? You 
could save that two-mile walk and be back in 
half the time! ” Harry called after them. 

“ Good idea! Thanks.” And the boys dis¬ 
appeared from sight behind the trees. 

In fifteen minutes the picnickers were 
startled by the put-put of an engine and look¬ 
ing up they saw a motor boat going in crazy 
rapid circles out on the lake. In it were Steve 
and Ted, standing, and apparently convulsed 
with laughter. 

“ It’ll only go backward or in circles,” 
they shouted to the group on shore. “ Good¬ 
bye ! We’re off. We don’t know where we’re 
going but we’re on our way. SAVE US 
SOME LUNCH.” 

At that moment the boat, describing a larger 
circle than usual, grounded on the sand-bar. 
The difficulty of dislodging it only strength¬ 
ened the boys’ determination to see the thing 
through to a finish, and despite the fact that 
Bee shouted that the steak was all cooked and 
the potatoes nearly boiled, they waved a cheer¬ 
ful good-bye and shot off down the lake back¬ 
ward. 

“ Silly things,” 


Carol said disdainfully. 


122 


‘Jeanne's House Party 

“ They’ll never get back. It would serve 
them right if we didn’t save a thing.” 

And when two o’clock came and went with¬ 
out a sign of the boys, Harry fell on to their 
share with a whoop. Utterly callous of the re¬ 
monstrances of the tender-hearted girls, he ate 
both pieces of steak and had started on the corn 
and potatoes when the Allen boys discovered 
him and made him divide even. 

By the time the pots and pans were washed 
and the paper plates and napkins burned, 
everyone was hot enough and sticky enough for 
a swim. The boys put up a small tent for the 
girls, and then they themselves disappeared in 
the woods. Jeanne had by this time learned to 
swim fairly well, but Bee, with a lifetime of 
athletic activities behind her, had become most 
proficient. To-day she ventured diving for 
the first time and though she repeatedly went 
flat with a resounding whack and an enormous 
splash, she was always game to try again. 

It was four o’clock before the last one came 
up out of the water and five before they at last 
started back along the road toward their 
motor boats. The general feeling was that the 
boys had such difficulty with their crazy little 


The Spook House 123 

motor boat that by the time they reached Lake 
Sunnapine they had either gone home or 
begged a luncheon from one of the cottage 
people on Glen Lake. In either case they 
were to be scorned rather than pitied. 

By the time the young people reached the 
dark little stretch of woods where the “ Spook 
House ” was hidden they were all more or less 
silent with weariness and Harry’s sudden 
abrupt reminder that they must go investigat¬ 
ing as they had all promised, met with slight 
enthusiasm. 

“ It was Steve and Ted who wanted it most, 
and they’re not here,” Carol said as they 
hesitated before the sombre looking build¬ 
ing. 

“ But we promised,” Harry said, the spirit 
of adventure lit in him because of the opposi¬ 
tion he encountered. “ I’m going! ” he de¬ 
clared suddenly; “ anybody else with me? ” 

Bee, shivering, admitted she rather wanted 
to peek inside. The Allen boys, not to be out¬ 
done by a girl, marched forward with them, 
but Carol and the other girls went on down the 
road toward sunlight while Jeanne paused un¬ 
decided. 


124 Jeanne s House Party 

“ Come on, Jeanne,” Bee called in an en- 
couraging voice, and that settled the matter. 
With a wave of her hand to the departing 
members of the crowd she ran lightly up on the 
rickety porch after the others. 

Harry found the door broken off its hinges 
and hanging drunkenly in the room. Bravely 
he stepped inside, then ducked suddenly as a 
bat circled swiftly over his head. The two 
girls held back a scream and clutched each 
other and in the sudden cessation of talk and 
laughter they heard a faint moan. 

“ Oh! ” Jeanne cried. “ What was that? ” 

“ Ghosts,” the Allen boys cried simultane¬ 
ously. 

“ Told you it was a spook house,” Harry 
said in a loud voice, but it was to be noticed 
that no one had advanced farther into the room 
where a half dozen bats were wheeling in their 
dreadful still low flight. 

“ Hark! Let’s see if we hear it again,” 
Bee suggested, and they all stood silent, listen¬ 
ing. 

This time it was not a moan but a heavy 
labored breathing that came to their ears. It 
seemed to be above them and Harry, suddenly 


The Spook House 125 

bolder than the rest, walked over to the foot 
of the tumbled down staircase discernible to 
them in the dark. 

“ Steve,” he shouted suddenly, and after a 
moment of suspense there came again to their 
ears the moan they had first heard. 

Without a word, Hany was up the stairs, 
climbing recklessly over piles of fallen plaster 
and leaping the gaps where steps had crumbled 
to pieces, disappearing in the murky blackness 
above. 

The rest were instantly ready to follow but 
Harry called down in natural voice that in¬ 
stantly dispelled the eerie gruesomeness of the 
place: 

“ The girls mustn’t come up. It isn’t safe. 
But you boys will have to. Steve and Ted 
are hurt and need help.” 

So Vic and the Allen boys scrambled up the 
stairs after Harry, and the sound of a low 
whistle came down to the girls waiting in an 
agony of suspense below. 

When at last, after many sounds of shoving 
and scuffling and hurrying about up-stairs there 
came to them the sound of Steve’s voice weak 
but carrying a note of sanity and humor, they 


126 Jeanne s House Party 

caught each other’s hands with a sudden sigh 
of thankfulness. 

“ Thought we’d put one over,” Steve said, 
faintly, “ but the spooks put one on—us.” 

“ I’ll say they did. Hold still now, Steve. 
Don’t be in a hurry.” And Steve, his arm 
about his brother with one of the Allen boj^s 
supporting him on the other side, half slid, half 
walked down the stairway. 

Once they got him down they went back for 
Ted and the girls got Steve out in the sun and 
air. He sprawled limply under a tree while 
Jeanne’s deft fingers bound up an ugly cut on 
his head with a handkerchief soaked in the lake. 

“ That’s a mean one,” she said, bathing his 
head when she had finished. “ Are you hurt 
anywhere else, Steve?” 

“ No. That knocked me west for a while 
though. What time is it? ” 

“ Five-thirty,” said Bee. 

Steve whistled. And then, in slow tones, 
with big pauses he told the story. 

He and Ted had spent two hours getting 
back to Lake Sunnapine and by that time 
they were so hungry that they decided to stop 
at the first cottage and beg a lunch. Which 


The Spook House 127 

they did, and were treated so royally that the 
time went by before they knew it, and it was 
three-thirty. They then couldn’t get the motor 
boat going again so they telephoned the owner, 
told him where they had left it and started 
back, determined to wait in their own motor 
boat for the rest of the party. 

As they passed the “ Spook House ” they 
suddenly thought it would be a great lark to 
hide here and scare the rest as they went by, by 
shrieks and groans and other weird noises. 
But before they had finished investigating 
themselves Steve was horrified to hear a sudden 
grinding tear and to see a huge beam slowly 
sink and a part of the roof of the house com¬ 
ing down on top of them. He cried out and 
jumped and though he escaped the beam, a 
flying stick struck him on the head, knocking 
him senseless, and when he came to he was 
jammed down under a pile of light debris that 
nearly smothered him. 

“ Where’s Ted? ” Jeanne asked quietly and 
Steve, looking up into her frightened eyes, 
answered the truth quietly. 

“ Pinned under the big beam—unconscious. 
I don’t know how badly off he is. I am going 


128 Jeanne s House Party 

back in there now.” He struggled up to a 
sitting position just as a sober group emerged 
from the doorway carrying on a rudely impro¬ 
vised stretcher the still form of Ted. 

“ Broken leg, chest hurt,” Vic said briefly. 
“ That’s all we know. Better move along, 
boys, as fast as possible, to the boats.” 

It was a rather sober crowd that finally 
gathered at the dock and settled in the two 
motors again, but the tension was relieved to 
some extent when Ted, cruelly hurt by the 
shift onto the floor of the boat, groaned, then 
opened his eyes for a brief moment and said 
painfully: 

“ Hello, everybody.” 


CHAPTER VIII 


NEWS FROM THE FRONT 

Ted’s injuries proved not to be serious, 
although to him they were serious enough. A 
dislocated wrist, a cut and bruised chest were 
painful though endurable, but a broken leg 
meant that his fun for the summer was over. 
He was not allowed to see anyone outside the 
family for a few days because he was running a 
slight fever, so though it seemed a bit heartless 
to go on without him, it was really the only 
thing to do. It thus happened Jeanne’s 
planned activities were not interfered with. 

The day after the picnic at Glen Lake had 
been set for the climb up Bear Cat Mountain. 
Jeanne and her guests were all at breakfast 
discussing the luncheon problem—should they 
take it prepared or cook it on top of the moun¬ 
tain?—when James appeared with the mail. 

Mrs. Stafford always folded the newspaper 

129 



* 3 ° Jeanne's House Party 

quietly away for reading at a later date for she 
had learned that war talk shadowed Jeanne’s 
eyes, and the little dread that lay deep in the 
heart of Bee for her brother crept into her 
face to linger. 

This morning, however, the head-lines leaped 
at her, and an involuntary exclamation drew all 
eyes to her, hushing the inconsequent chatter 
like a cold wind. 

“ What is it, cherie? " 

Jeanne, white-faced, rose as she asked the 
question and went quickly to Mrs. Stafford’s 
chair. Leaning over her shoulder she fol¬ 
lowed the account that her mother read aloud 
to the shocked group of young people. 

“ Sinking of the Galveston/’ 

“ Tom’s ship,” Jeanne murmured. “ Go 
on. 

The Galveston, it was reported, had been 
struck by a submarine in the danger zone and 
had sunk almost immediately. More than 
half the crew had perished in the high seas, the 
captain going down with his ship. The names 
of the survivors were printed below. 

Breathless, her little hands clenched, 
Jeanne’s eyes raced down the pitifully small 


News From the Front 131 

list of those saved. Her good captain gone! 
There was no doubt about that. But Tom! 
Young laughing Tom! had he been sucked 
down in the black cold water too? G-H-X-J- 
K—Karder, Kamby, Kelly, George Kelly, 
Michael Kelly, Pat Ivelly, Tom! 

There it was. Tom Kelly! Tears suddenly 
flooded Jeanne’s straining eyes and with a 
little sob she rushed from the room. 

The news shook her as nothing had for 
months. Mrs. Stafford, going up to her later, 
found her trembling, her brown eyes dilated to 
black with her imaginative forebodings. She 
could not seem to rid herself of a dreadful 
fear for Dr. Jack, and Mrs. Stafford thought 
for a while that the day’s climb to the top of 
Bear Cat must be postponed. It happened to 
be Carol’s selfishness that restored Jeanne’s 
poise. 

Mrs. Stafford had gone down again to the 
young people who were gathered in a quiet 
group on the verandah. In a low voice she 
explained that Jeanne was not well enough to 
consider the climb and they could either go 
without her or postpone the trip until another 
day. 


132 Jeanne's House Party 

“ Oh, we’ll postpone it, of course,” Bee cried 
quickly. 

“We wouldn’t think of going without her,” 
Harry said, and Mrs. Stafford, with a nod, 
turned back into the house to consult Katie. 

“ Well, I think it’s a rotten shame! ” Carol’s 
clear voice, higher in her pique, rose through 
the still air to Jeanne’s window. “ She’s just 
like M’amselle—glooming the whole party be¬ 
cause of her sorrow. It seems to be the French 
way, but I call it selfish. And what’s the point 
anyway? Tom’s safe . It isn’t as though he 
were dead.” 

“ You aren’t the only one to have nerves,” 
Bee remarked pointedly, but it was Steve, not 
Bee, who brought Carol to her senses. 

“ The captain is, though, and he was her 
friend.” Steve spoke up, his eyes on Carol in 
a contemptuous gaze that dried up her angry 
retort. To be liked and admired by all boys— 
that was her creed in life at present. And 
here she was met by cold scorn. She saw she 
had made a mistake and she hastened to rectify 
it. 

“ Oh, of course. I forgot that. Well, 
then, naturally she feels badly-” 



News From the Front 133 

But Jeanne herself interrupted them. She 
stood in the doorway, still white, still a little 
shaken, but with a calmness in her eyes that 
held determination unshakable. 

“ It is time to start, is it not? ” she asked 
quietly. “ Steve, please call Victor and the 
Allens. I will see if lunch is ready. Or per¬ 
haps -•” she smiled at the girls. “ Hadn’t 

we all better help Katie and Mother Stafford? 
We will get off sooner.” 

So composed and quiet was her manner that 
there was no question raised even by Mother 
Stafford. One glance into Jeanne’s eyes and 
she turned to the business of putting up baskets 
and boxes of lunch, and in less than an hour 
the young people were climbing merrily into 
two big automobiles that were to take them to 
the foot of the big mountain. 

Jeanne was the gayest of them all. She was 
in the car with Carol and Steve, Buth and 
Harry and one of the Allens. Her manner was 
always happy, but usually it was Bee’s whole¬ 
some love of fun or Carol’s recklessness that 
led them into laughter. Jeanne in a group 
was a follower except at crucial moments. 
But to-day with her eyes shining and a high 



134 "Jeanne's House Party 

color in both cheeks she surprised them all by 
her vivacity. Carol, rather used to being the 
ring-leader, sank into a silence that gradually 
became sullen, but Ruth, reading in Jeanne’s 
eyes a vague call for help, rallied to the situa¬ 
tion and came out with some bits of drollery 
that surprised herself. 

Their car reached Bear Cat first and Jeanne 
was off up the trail, her little lunch box swing¬ 
ing at her side on a strap, her sneakered feet 
dancing before the rest of them were fairly out 
of the car. 

Steve was beside her almost instantly, Ruth 
and Harry came next, but Carol and the Allen 
boy preferred to wait for the other car. They 
had met with a blow-out and were delayed by 
the necessary changing of a shoe, so that the 
four who had started ahead reached the top and 
had time for a long talk before the rest joined 
them. 

For Ruth, that climb held one of the happiest 
memories she took home with her. Jeanne’s 
unnatural exuberance fell from her before they 
were half-way to the top and she was her sweet 
natural self again, drawing Ruth into a warm 
companionship that she had felt so shut away 


News From the Front 


l 35 

from ever since her arrival. With Jeanne to 
take the lead conversationally, with Steve to 
meet their earnestness and Harry to lift them 
from solemnity, and Ruth forgetting herself 
utterly for once, they talked easily enough of 
a hundred different things. 

At the top of the mountain with a little 
stretch of the big world lying clear cut before 
them, they sank under the shade of a huge pine 
tree. 

“ I’m dying to eat,” Ruth said frankly. 

“ Right-o,” Harry agreed. “ Do we eat, 
Cap’n? ” 

It was thoughtlessly given—that title—and 
instantly Harry’s hand dropped on Jeanne’s in 
contrition. 

“ I’m so sorry. And here I’ve been doing 
my best to help you forget.” 

“ But I don’t want to forget.” Jeanne 
always met issues so squarely, Ruth thought, 
watching her sensitive face as she talked. 

“ I want to remember the captain and talk 
about him. I want to remember this war— 
and all the suffering of it. It’s the forgetters 
who are wrong.” 

“ .Yes—you’re right,” Steve said quickly. 



136 yeanne s House Party 

“ But,” Jeanne went on, sitting forward in 
her earnestness, her hands clasped about her 
knees, “ I want to remember—happily, that is 
the thing. To have sadness come and—and— 
leave you—richer.” 

She plucked up a handful of pine-needles 
and sprinkled them through her fingers. “ I 
can’t say it.” 

“ You’re saying it,” Harry cried. “ We get 
you. S’good idea—but so was mine, about the 
lunch. Do we snitch a bite? ” 

“ Oh, we mustn’t. They’d be mad,” Ruth 
said. 

“ Who’d be mad? Nobody in the whole 
bunch but that doll-baby. Carol’s all right,” 
Harry amended quickly at a look from Jeanne, 
“ but she wants everything, and she wants it 
her own way in her own time. She’s probably 
fuming like an old hen because she’s not up 
here with us. And if she was here, she’d be 
afraid she was missing out on something the 
other bunch was having. Well, isn’t it true? ” 
he ended, meeting Jeanne’s reproachful glance 
defiantly. 

Jeanne laughed, but her eyes were troubled. 
“ Yes, but-” 



News From the Front 137 

“ I know. You’re a good scout for a girl. 
That’s why the boys all like you. You don’t 
go around saying mean things about other girls 
behind their backs.” 

“Not when you can talk about such glorious 
things as this that’s before our faces,” said 
Ruth with surprising tact. 

“ The thing that gets me is, that all this,”— 
she waved her hand to the view before them, 
“ that looks so large, is such a wee little scrap 
of all that there is still to see. I want to 
travel,” she said suddenly, her eyes speaking 
for her for the first time since her arrival. “ I 

want to see and know—and-” she stopped 

suddenly. She had meant to say “ and grow ” 
—but it sounded just a little too serious. 

“ And what, Ruth? ” Steve asked care¬ 
lessly. But Ruth read his indifferent interest 
for mere politeness and closed up as suddenly 
as she had opened. If ever there was anyone 
really interested in her she knew she could talk, 
but not if he were simply lending a civil ear. 
The idea that it was up to her to interest people 
first had not yet occurred to her. 

Halloos from below interrupted them, and 
in a few moments the rest of the party, hot 



138 Jeanne s House Party 

and breathless, joined them. Mr. Allen was 
playing chaperon again and in spite of his size 
and his age he was the readiest to build a fire 
and help with the getting of lunch. Most of 
it they had brought in boxes,—sandwiches, 
cake and coffee—but broiled steaks they must 
have or it could not be called a picnic. 

^ After lunch the boys had a stone throwing 
contest while the girls were clearing up the 
debris. Then came a rollicking game of Duck 
on the Rock which nearly ended in tragedy. 
Jeanne, running furiously from Harry who 
was pursuing her, stumbled and fell rolling to 
the very edge of a cliff which dropped precipi¬ 
tately several hundred feet. There she lay, the 
upper part of her body half over, her toes and 
fingers digging into the dirt until Harry, close 
behind her, seized her by the ankles and drew 
her back. As she sank against him, white and 
wide-eyed, the earth over which she had been 
hanging crumbled and gave way, tumbling 
with a clatter of stones to the bottom. 

Everyone was paralyzed into a silence that 
was broken finally by a chorus of gasps from 
the girls and brief exclamations from the boys. 
Jeanne recovered her composure more quickly; 



News From the Front 139 

than anyone. With a little laugh she rose and 
curtseyed to Harry. 

“ Merci beaucoup , Harry. It is strong 
fingers that you have. You have left the marks 
of all of them, I feel sure. Shall we start 
down?” 

It was this gay courage of hers that was so 
admirable. Bee, pluckier than any of the 
other girls, recognized it and gave it due 
homage. On the trail down the mountain she 
managed to get next to Jeanne and give her 
arm a squeeze. 

“ You’re a wonder. I love you for not 
squealing. That’s twice to-day.” 

“ To be sporting goods, is not that what you 
say? That’s what I want to be,” Jeanne 
made quaint reply. 

When they got home they found still more 
news awaiting them—of a happier nature this 
time. Bee, opening a letter from her mother, 
turned first very white then very red, then 
surprised them all by breaking into tears and 
laughter both at once. 

“ Wait—I’ll tell you,” she said. “ It was 
so awful at first, now it’s so good . Jack was 
wounded—gassed,” she corrected herself, gen 



140 "Jeanne's House Party 

ing back to her letter, “ and he’s been in a 
hospital a month and none of us knew it. But 
now he’s better and they’re sending him home. 
He’s discharged from active service. No more 
fighting; think of that! ” 

The two girls might have been alone, so for¬ 
getful were they of the rest of the group. 
Bee’s cheeks were scarlet, her eyes bright. 
Jeanne’s face was pale, her lips steadied be¬ 
tween two rows of even teeth, big tears brim¬ 
ming her brown eyes. 

“ And-” Bee finally became aware of 

the other listeners, including them in her 
glance. 

“ He’ll be getting here to America,” she con¬ 
sulted her letter again, “ soon—in a few weeks 
—and he wrote Mother that he’d probably stop 
off here on his way home.” 

Jeanne’s long-drawn breath was unnoticed 
by all save Mrs. Stafford. With a quiet arm 
slipped about her daughter she asked a ques¬ 
tion that sobered the jubilation. 

“ Does your mother say how badly he was 
hurt? He may not be able to stand the racket 
here, you know. Much as we want him, he 
must do what is best.” 




News From the Front 141 

“ It’s his eyes, Auntie Bee,” Bee explained 
softly. “ They’re no good—for use as a doctor 
or as a soldier. He has to wear glasses and be 
terribly careful and can’t read or write, but the 
doctors all say that time and rest will cure 
him absolutely.” 

After that the evening was filled with talk 
of Jack and Jack’s coming. Bee held the cen¬ 
ter of the stage, holding the boys’ interest by 
graphic accounts of Jack’s adventures, and 
quite unconsciously painting her adored 
brother as a romantic figure who appealed to 
the listening girls—Carol and Ruth. 

Jeanne slipped away unobserved and went 
to her room, and Bee, coming up at bedtime, 
found her sound asleep, her pillow wet with 
tears, one hand clutching the locket which was 
opened revealing Jack’s picture. 

As Bee switched on the light, Jeanne, half 
awake, sat up in bed and stretched out her arms 
to Bee. Quickly the understanding little 
Westerner put the room in darkness again 
and kneeling down by the bed flung her arms 
about Jeanne. For a second there was si¬ 
lence, then a little laugh broke from them 
both. 



142 


‘Jeanne’'s House Party 

“ We’re crying; aren’t we silly ? ” Jeanne 
whispered. 

“No, we’re sensible. You can’t always be 
sporting goods in the dark,” Bee retorted. 


CHAPTER IX 

THE BASEBALL GAME 


In ten days when Ted was able to be moved 
outdoors to the couch on the porch, Victor sug¬ 
gested a baseball game. It was to be played 
out in the field, the center of the horseshoe, the 
one open place visible from every cottage on 
the point. His suggestion was met with only 
half-hearted enthusiasm until he conceived the 
idea of the boys playing against the girls, the 
boys to be dressed in girls’ clothes and bat and 
pitch left handed, while the girls were to wear 
knickers or bloomers. 

The idea took at once. Ted, not to be left 
out of it, was persuaded to print a huge sign 
which read as follows: 

The Ruff Necks of the Point 
CHALLENGE 
The Fair Damsels 
to a 

Baseball Game at the 
Horseshoe Green 
This Afternoon at 2:30 
Boys 'will please wear skirts and girls kindly 

put on trousers . 

143 



144 Jeanne's House Party 

The girls immediately rushed to the green 
to see which of them could throw or catch or 
bat the best. After a rather hectic morning 
of screaming directions and convulsed laugh¬ 
ter, Bee was elected captain and pitcher. She 
put Ruth on first base, one of the Allen girls 
on second, Carol on third and Jeanne was 
made catcher. 

“But I can’t pitch!” she cried dismally. 
“ I shall ruin the game.” 

“ 4 You are N G on the throw,’ ” Harry 
quoted an old saying of hers laughingly. 

“ Never mind, you can catch and nobody 
else can catch as well,” said Bee. “ If they’d 
let us wear skirts I’d put Carol there. She 
could stop the ball that way, but they won’t 
and you’re not afraid of them. Send ground¬ 
ers to Ruth on first; she’ll get ’em. Or I’ll run 
up and you pitch to me. Then I can get ’em 
to Ruth. That’s best, I guess.” 

The lunch hour was a hilarious one, with the 
boys teasing the girls and putting up all sorts 
of bets, and the girls meeting them defiantly. 
The mothers were to make lemonade and serve 
it from Ted’s porch. He himself was propped 
close to the rail, with field-glasses and a mega- 


The Baseball Game 145 

phone near by, for he was to be umpire. He 
wanted Mr. Allen to act as umpire but Mr. 
Allen was made to play, so Ted finally yielded. 

At 2: 30 the field was swarming with young 
people; girls trim in knickers and blouses, the 
boys galloping about in skirts. Harry had 
dressed up in a hat, gay with red and blue 
feathers. Where he had found it no one knew, 
but as the straw was nearly two feet in cir¬ 
cumference and the feathers were suspiciously 
wet with dye, it was concluded he had deco¬ 
rated his own head-gear. 

The Allen boys wore red flannel petticoats, 
high heeled white slippers and pink sunbonnets. 
Steve was gowned in a decollete evening dress 
of Mrs. Stafford’s, a black one that he trimmed 
with daisies “ to brighten it up for this festive 
occasion.” His great sunburned arms and 
huge wool-stockinged feet with sneakers on 
them protruding from this black lace creation 
made him a grotesque figure. 

Victor, smaller and slighter than the other 
boys, looked almost charming in a simple little 
pink gingham dress with a high rounded neck, 
elbow sleeves, a pink belt and black slippers 
with pink socks. But it was Mr. Allen, great 


146 "Jeanne s House Party 

red-faced Mr. Allen, with his hairy hands and 
thick neck, who convulsed the crowd. He was 
the last to appear, and the audience, sitting on 
the sloping ground below Ted's cottage, were 
clapping impatiently when a titter, then a 
shriek, then a roar rose from the youngsters 
among the spectators. 

For the Allen boys, in their red flannel petti¬ 
coats and sunbonnets, appeared pushing a 
dilapidated baby carriage which threatened to 
collapse at every bump in the ground, and in 
this carriage—or rather —out of it—reposed 
Mr. Allen, dressed as a bab}^. His feet, with 
knitted socks, fanned the air; a round white 
cap covered his head and he reared up in his 
big white nightgown to stare at the crowd, his 
face puckered in pretended fright, then he 
burst into a howl. The Allen boys hustled 
about, finally producing a bottle of milk and a 
pacifier, both of which they crammed into their 
large charge’s mouth. Then they jammed him 
back among the pillows again and lumbered 
on their way. 

The climax came, of course, when in trying 
to pull the old carriage up on the level of the 
field, it broke and the baby rolled out, breaking 



'The Baseball Game 


HI 


his bottle of milk, yelling until his red face 
turned purple and his pink sacque burst its 
ribbons and split in two down the back. At 
that he leaped up, galloped out on the field, 
tied his nightgown up with a tape measure and 
proceeded to start the game. 

Of course it was a farce. The boys were out 
for a good time and the girls’ earnest efforts 
to shine were soon frustrated. No sooner did 
the Fair Damsels really make a good hit, or a 
safe run to a base, than one of the boys would 
start something ridiculous that entirely eclipsed 
the brilliancy of the girls. Steve, ripping his 
evening dress at every move, was the clown of 
the afternoon and had everyone shrieking in 
terror as it dropped from him bit by bit until 
he stood at last clad only in his bathing suit. 
Harry’s hat, flopping off at a crucial moment, 
spoiled a home run, for he turned to gather his 
precious bonnet up tenderly into his arms and 
was put out. But it was Mr. Allen who kept 
the fun going most. No one could possibly 
have looked more grotesque than he did when 
he was in earnest, and when he finally flopped 
on the ground in the middle of the third inning 
and cried for his bottle till the Allen boys came 


148 Jeanne s House Party 

running with it and pillows and blankets, the 
wearied audience sighed in thankfulness for 
a moment’s respite from side-splitting laugh¬ 
ter. 

The game consisted of five innings only, 
during which Bee had made two runs, Ruth 
one, Carol, fleet as a deer, three, two of which 
were home runs. Jeanne had distinguished 
herself by bravely catching all the balls Steve 
sent whizzing in to her, so that their score to¬ 
talled six. What the boys scored was never 
accurately known for they did so much fooling 
and so little disputing that when the victory 
was finally given to the Fair Damsels with a 
lead of one point over the boys, they were the 
first to rush into a circle, stick their heads 
down, their shoulders up, and cheer for the 
“ Dear Fair Gazelles.” 

After the game the two teams assembled on 
the broad verandah of Ted’s cottage where 
lemonade and crackers were served. Bee and 
Jeanne, as usual, were busily hurrying about 
trying to serve the older people, while Harry 
and Steve trailed in their wake, trying to serve 
them. Carol, perched on the broad verandah 
rail near the reclining Ted, somehow gathered 


The Baseball Game 149 

about her the Allen boys and Vic. She wore 
brown knickers and a brown flannel shirt open 
at the neck with a brown cap pulled down over 
her fair hair. Her cheeks were flushed from 
the exercise of playing and her eyes sparkling, 
and it is not to be wondered at that glances 
were constantly turned on her. 

Ruth, as usual, sat m a corner, talking to 
one of the older women. Her heavy hair, wet 
about her face, had lost whatever claim to curl 
it had ever possessed. The perspiration 
streamed down her face. Her middy blouse 
showed a big wet spot in the middle of the 
back; her bloomers were torn and her sneakers 
muddy. Why couldn’t she play and get 
tumbled prettily? As Carol did? And Jeanne? 
And Bee? Jeanne looked like an apple blos¬ 
som. Her waist was white;—but still white, 
Ruth noticed resentfully—her hair, though 
falling about her shoulders, clung in ringlets 
and looked prettier than ever. 

Bee was torn and muddy but she retained a 
freshness of color, a fluffiness of hair that gave 
her an appearance of order and cleanliness. 

Ruth rose, a sudden lump filling her throat. 
Everything was so constantly disappointing. 




1 5 ° Jeanne's House Parly 

She was so tired of being on the outside of 
things. She guessed she’d go home—sneak 
away. 

No one saw her. She dropped her feet over 
the railing, and when laughter broke out afresh 
over some prank of Mr. Allen’s, she jumped to 
the ground, scurried to the rear of the house 
and started on a run back to their cottage. 
Tears welled up as she hurried along the path, 
so that she was unaware of an approaching 
figure until she ran plump into his arms. 

“Oh! Oh!” she cried, flinging her head 
back to stare through a mist of tears at a big 
man with kind eyes looking down at her. 
They were the kindest eyes she had ever seen, 
she thought, and the bluest. “ Excuse me,” 
she ended in confusion, and then she tried to 
break away from his strong hands, for fresh 
tears at the misery of being so seen by a 
stranger—and a man—threatened. 

“ Nothing to excuse,” he assured her calmly, 
still keeping his hold on her arm but turning 
with her to walk by her side. “Now tell me 
the trouble,” he said in an authoritative way. 
“ Maybe I can help. I’ve helped ladies in dis¬ 
tress before.” 


The Baseball Game 151 

Ruth blinked, gulped, dashed at the tears 
with her hands, then laughed. 

“I’m sure you have. You seem to know 
how to do it. I feel better already.” 

It was a natural little speech and tumbled 
out unwittingly. 

“ That’s better.” His hand patted her arm 
in a big brotherly way. “Are you going any¬ 
where in particular? If not, let’s sit here on 
this big flat rock and talk. You’ll meet me 
sooner or later—I’m visiting here—so we may 
as well consider ourselves properly intro¬ 
duced.” 

“I’m Ruth Winfield.” As she spoke she 
dropped on the rock and looked up at the big 
man standing beside her. “ And I don’t 
know why I should pour my troubles and my 
tears all over you, but I seem to be going to do 
it.” 

“ Troubles and tears are both better for an 
airing.” He began to smoke, deliberately giv¬ 
ing the girl before him time to regain her com¬ 
posure. Then he flung himself on the ground 
at her feet, his face half turned from hers. 
“ Aren’t you having a good time here? ” he 
asked in a matter-of-fact way. 



15 2 Jeanne s House Party 

“ No.” It burst from her in a bitterness of 
passion that rather shocked her companion, but 
he kept on smoking, his head still averted. 

“ Why not? ” 

“ Because—oh—because, I’m fat and ugly 
and my clothes are all wrong and-” 

“ You think the boys don’t like you? ” 

Ruth nodded. 

“ They like Carol and Jeanne best, and they 

all like Bee- Who are you anyway?” 

Ruth demanded suddenly. “ And whom are 
you visiting? Why should I be talking to you 
like this? Oh, I wouldn’t if I weren’t sure I’d 
never see you again! ” 

“ Now see here.” He sat up and turned to 
face Ruth. “ I believe that people come into 
each other’s lives for a reason every time. My 
meeting you isn’t accidental. Your wanting 
to talk to me, personally, isn’t a thing of 
chance. It’s been meant. If I can help you, 
I want to. Perhaps you can help me too. I 
don’t know how, or when. People are intended 
to give to each other something of themselves. 
You’ve just started to show me the real you 
that you’ve kept tucked away from everybody 
else all summer. Don’t get scared and scuttle 





The Baseball Game 153 

away, now;” he paused, then added, slowly, 
“ I’m Tom Kelly.” 

During the first of his speech Ruth sat star¬ 
ing in dumb amazement at him, her lovely gray 
eyes widening and darkening in the wonder and 
joy of being talked to like that. Could it be 
the beginning of a dream come true? In his 
friendliness he was utterly unaware of the 
stir he was waking in the quiet girl before him, 
the turmoil and breathlessness that seized 
her. 

“ It’s been meant ” The words echoed in 
her heart, touching her dream world with a 
radiance and sparkle and glow when before it 
had been drab and dull. Then when he told 
her his name, the fire in her face died, the shock 
of the disclosure turned her white and still, then 
the slow red crept to her cheeks. She jumped 
up. 

“ I hate you! ” she cried in a low fierce voice. 
And she sped on down the path to the cottage. 


CHAPTER X 


RUTH COMES OUT OF HER SHELL 

Tom Kelly’s coming had been planned as a 
surprise. He had written to Mrs. Stafford as 
soon as he had reached America again and told 
her it would be almost a month before he would 
be assigned to another ship. He would like 
very much to accept the invitation she had 
offered him months before and come up to 
Lake Sunnapine for part of his leave of 
absence. 

Mrs. Stafford, of course, wrote him a royal 
welcome. He could have the other down¬ 
stairs bedroom across the living-room from 
Steve and Harry. She had slipped away from 
the baseball game to meet his train, and on 
coming back to the cottage with him, had found 
unexpected callers stopping on the way 
through the mountains of Vermont by auto¬ 
mobile. So she had sent Tom over to Ted’s, 
regretting her inability to share in the surprise 
of the girls. 


154 


Ruth Comes Out of Her Shell 155 

Tom, of course, had heard about all the girls 
through Jeanne’s letters and it was an easy 
guess that the tear-stained, woebegone baseball 
player running home was Ruth. 

The same big-hearted impulsiveness that had 
drawn Jeanne’s story from her a year or more 
ago, had prompted him to hold out the warm 
hand of friendship to this girl too. Ruth re¬ 
sponded as Jeanne had, feeling the gentleness 
under his strength, seeing sympathy in his blue 
eyes. For Tom had known deprivation, suf¬ 
fering and loneliness, and each had contributed 
to his share of understanding. 

After she had abruptly left him he rose and 
went on down the path toward the sound of 
laughter and voices he heard in the distance. 
Ruth, meanwhile, flew home, and, hearing 
voices on the verandah, she slipped in the back 
door and up to her own room. 

Tom Kelly! It seemed to her the crudest 
blow that had yet fallen that Tom should have 
had his first glimpse of her in that way. Jeanne 
had so often spoken of him, more often than 
she had of Jack, about whom she kept a curious 
reserve, speaking, when she did briefly, with a 
far-away look in her eyes. But Tom was a 


156 "Jeanne s House Party 

familiar figure to Ruth and a romantic one. 
She had pictured him so often, red hair, blue 
eyes, frank wide smile and winning friendli¬ 
ness, and each time her imagination had dwelt 
on him she had fancied meeting him. 

A hundred different ways she had conceived 
their introduction, and always, of course, Ruth 
was to be beautiful and brilliant, winning for 
herself from him an interest as great as Dr. 
Jack’s in Jeanne. 

And now—now—to have it happen this way. 
When she was dirty and swollen with tears and 
unhappy. What a fool she had been to talk. 
Why had she? If she had only known who he 
was! He should have told her, instantly, as she 
did him. He hadn’t been fair. If she had 
known she could have bluffed. Now he knew 
all her shame and misery and ache and loneli¬ 
ness, and he must despise her. At any rate, she 
despised him. Romantic! He wasn’t romantic 
at all. He was fresh and inquisitive. And 
for all the rest of his stay here she’d keep away 
from him. He could talk with Jeanne or 
Carol or Bee, but not another word would he 
ever get out of her. 

She wanted to lie in her bed and cry for the 


Ruth Comes Out of Her Shell 157 

rest of the clay, but Ruth had her pride and 
having decided on her course of action she rose 
to begin it. She took a hasty swim in the lake, 
washed her hair while she was in, then dried it 
in the sun on the boat house verandah. 

Back in her room she picked out her clothes 
that she would wear that night with great care. 

They were to go over to the park, it had 
been decided on Ted’s verandah, so Ruth chose 
a pleated white skirt, her deep yellow sweater, 
white strap pumps and silk stockings. Her 
hair, straight enough most of the time, curled 
the tiniest bit after a shampoo, so she did not 
have to bother with curlers. As she was put¬ 
ting on her net, her cheeks scarlet from hurry¬ 
ing, she heard the others come trooping home. 

When Carol came up Ruth was sitting by 
the window, deliberately polishing her finger 
nails. 

“ My dear ” Carol cried before she was fairly 
in the room. “ What do you think? Tom 
Kelly has come! ” 

“ Yes, I know,” Ruth made answer without 
looking up. “ I met him on my way home.” 

“ Oh, did you? Isn’t he stunning? Hon¬ 
estly, I never saw such a good-looking man in 


1 58 yeanne's House Party 

all my life. His whole face just twinkles, and 
his lovely red hair is so curly and his eyes are 
so blue—and he’s so big. Isn’t he huge? He 
loves dancing, he says.” 

All this time Carol was divesting herself of 
her knickers and getting into her bathing suit. 

“ Of course he looks ridiculous in that sailor 
suit and those floppy trousers and that cap 
perched on his head, but he says-” 

With a little shock of surprise at herself 
Ruth realized she hadn’t even noticed his 
clothes. She might have been faintly suspi¬ 
cious if she had. What a fool! What a—she 
polished harder. 

“—says he’ll wear white ones to-night. 
We’re all going in swimming now. Coming 
down? What did you come home so early 
for? ” At last Carol’s thoughts centered on 
Ruth. 

“ I was too hot and wet to be comfortable.” 

‘‘ Well, you look cool as a cucumber now, 
and about as delicious. Why don’t you rave 
too? Didn’t you love him? ” 

“ No, I didn’t. I didn’t like him at all.” 

“ Oh, la, la,” Carol cried gaily. “ Sour 
ball!” 




Ruth Comes Out of Her Shell 159 

The gay laughter of the crowd came up to 
Ruth sitting determinedly alone in her room, 
polishing — polishing — polishing. But she 
would not go down. She would never, not for 
one instant, be alone with Tom Kelly again 
while he was here. He might have caught her 
off guard once, but never again. 

So she waited until Carol was ready, Carol 
who put on a black dress and coiled her hair 
up to-night and looked three years older than 
any of the rest of them. She could have passed 
for twenty, with her slim white throat and fair 
head rising above a dainty frilled collar at the 
rounded neck of her dress. One great gold 
flower embroidered on the low belt line of her 
skirt was the only color she wore except for the 
gold lining in the black cape. Ruth, snapping 
the one hook at her back, was suddenly shaken 
with envy. No matter what her own best 
appearance was, it was never half as good as 
any of the other three girls. 

But she followed Carol down-stairs hum¬ 
ming a little song with a brave air of indiffer¬ 
ence, and when Mrs. Stafford started to 
introduce Tom she gave a careless nod and 
said: 



i6o Jeanne's House Party 

“ Oh, we met earlier. I showed him the way 
over to Ted’s.” 

Then she went to the piano and began play¬ 
ing until everyone appeared for supper. Tom 
came and stood close by the piano resting one 
arm on its top, which was slightly upsetting to 
Ruth’s plan of utter indifference, but she kept 
her eyes down and when Carol summoned him 
to her side and kept him there, Ruth, playing 
on, thought bitterly: 

“ Of course, that’s what always happens. 
But I’m glad ” 

Jeanne was all in white. Tom sat beside her 
at the table with eyes for no one else. Ruth, 

her first brave effort to be gay dying under 

* 

neglect, watched them with a dull pain in her 
heart. Tom teased Jeanne and complimented 
her all in a breath and Jeanne, her great brown 
eyes sparkling, her face lovely in her happiness 
to see her old friend, laid her tiny white hand 
on his arm and went beside him down to the 
dock where the big steamer was to stop. 

Ruth waited for Mrs. Stafford. Carol was 
with Harry, Bee with Steve. On board the 
boat, Ruth found herself in the middle of the 
group of chaperones, talking to be sure, and 


Ruth Comes Out of Her Shell 161 

apparently absorbed in explaining the stitch in 
her yellow sweater to Mrs. Allen, but she never 
for a moment was unaware of anything that 
was going on among the young people. She 
felt Tom’s look rest on her for an instant, then 
knew he and Jeanne had disappeared forward. 
Carol’s voice, sweet and tiny like a trickle of 
sand, led half a dozen others in singing some 
of the popular airs. One, a favorite, silly 
though it was—filled in every pause. 

“ I’m her he 
She’s my she 
I love her, she loves me, 

She’s as dumb as she can be, 

But she’s not too dumb for me- 99 


and on to the ridiculous end. 

“ Be my she to-night, Carol? ” she heard 
Harry ask. 

“ Only part of the time,” Carol made 
answer. Ted, of course, was not there, and 
Victor had not come. Ruth foresaw a dread¬ 
ful evening with herself as the extra girl, and 
truly it started off that way. The Allen boys 
each danced with their cousins, Tom with 



162 "Jeanne’s House Party 

Jeanne, Harry and Carol, Steve with Bee. 
Ruth’s eyes dropped and she tried her best not 
to look expectant or anxious when the dance 
was over and everyone was standing about 
waiting for the music to begin again. Out of 
the corner of her eye she saw Jeanne go off with 
Harry, Steve with Carol—would Tom take 
Bee or her? Would he never stop talking to 
Mrs. Allen? The music was going and it was 
so good, and to miss a bit of it—if she was to 

dance with Tom- Oh! he was coming, 

laughing, his eyes on Bee. Ruth’s hurt was 
almost physical. She felt so sick that for a 
moment the lights wavered and she had to stare 
steadily, till they stopped their silly bobbing 
about. She didn’t care. Why should she? 
She hated him anyway and wasn’t going to 
say a word. It was simply that she couldn’t 
bear to sit out again while all the others danced, 
and have everyone see her. 

Past Bee, with a smile and a low word. 
Straight to Ruth. 

“ Mine? ” 

Ruth’s eyes spoke for her, a dumb thanks, 
a great swelling joy, a terrific embarrassment 
and shame. She was in his arms, dancing as 




Ruth Comes Out of Her Shell 163 

she knew she had never danced before, listen¬ 
ing to his voice, a pleasant rumble, humming 
the tune to break an awkward silence. 

During the first pause as he stood clapping 
he gave her a quick glance. 

“ Don’t want to talk? 99 

“ Not—when I’m dancing,” she made 
answer. 

“ Later? ” 

Ruth nodded, angry at her own helplessness 
to resist him. Yet too hungry for just such 
attention as this to refuse. Nothing more was 
said. Ruth, suiting her step to his, found him 
a beautiful dancer, sure of himself with a strong 
lead and sense of rhythm. Ruth had that, 
too, but she knew she was not as pliable as any 
of the other three girls and with the less ex¬ 
perienced younger boys she had stumbled and 
faltered. To-night, however, there was magic 
in her feet. She felt as light as thistle-down 
and when the dance ended and Tom led her 
off into the darkness under the trees, it seemed 
almost natural to have him say: 

“ You’re a wonderful dancer.” 

Rut her tongue was tied, as it always had 
been, and all of a sudden she dreaded the ordeal 


164 Jeanne's House Party 

before her. She stopped suddenly, pulling her 
arm from his grasp. 

“ Let’s go back—to the others.” 

“ Why?” 

“ Because—there’s nothing to say.” 

" 1 have lots to say. Want to hear it? ” 

Ruth found herself laughing, suddenly at 
ease, and they made for a chair swing in the 
near distance. It was his directness, his sin¬ 
cerity that broke down her restraint and when, 
opposite her in the swing, he leaned forward 
at once and with his right hand extended said: 

“ I want to be friends with you. Won’t you 
let me? ” 

Ruth swallowed once quickly, then slipped 
her hand in his and answered simply: 

“ I’d love it.” 

Their hands gripped hard, then fell apart 
and Ruth laughed a little nervously. 

“ How do we begin? This is so different 
from what I had planned.” 

“ I know. You were going to freeze me out. 
Why, Ruth? Just because I caught you in 
tears? Don’t you see that gave us a head start 
over all the others? I saw the real you—didn’t 
have to wait for introductions and then go 



Ruth Comes Out of Her Shell 165 

through the long and painful business of dig¬ 
ging you out. What is there to be ashamed 
of? Or sorry about? ” 

So Ruth tried to tell him how all her life 
she had wanted boys’ companionship and how 
all her life she had never had it; how lonely she 
was; how hard, terribly hard it was to be the 
extra girl and sit with the chaperones. How 
she dreamed that this summer she might meet 
someone who would like her as he—Tom— 
liked Jeanne. Enough to want to dance with 
her first and last. 

It was a short confession but brave, reveal¬ 
ing the bleakness of Ruth’s life and the hunger 
of her heart, and when she suddenly stopped 
with a gulp, Tom reached forward and found 
her hand. 

“ Now I’ll tell you what we’re going to do 
while I’m up here. Know that song? ” and he 
began: 

“ I’m her he, 

She’s my she- 

“ All right. I’m your he, and you’re my 
she, and we’re going to have the time of our 
lives.” 




166 ‘Jeanne’s House Party 

“ Because you’re sorry for me! ” Ruth hurst 
out. 

“ I am—yes,” Tom made honest answer, 
“ but that’s not all the reason. I like you. I 
like you,” he repeated, “ and I hate to see a girl 
as fine as you are handing herself such a raw 
deal.” 

At Ruth’s stare of amazement Tom w r ent on: 

“ This afternoon, in spite of your tears you 
were genuine. You said what you thought 
and felt, and you showed a streak of humor 
too. To-night when you came down-stairs 
you looked stunning, but you sat like a lump 
on a log. I came over to the piano. Did you 
look up or smile a welcome? You did not. 
Carol called me. Do you think I’d have left 
you if you had given a sign you wanted me to 
stay? Give out a little of the warmth that’s 
there. You’re lonely, Ruth, but you’re proud 
and cold in your loneliness. If you’d love 
more and laugh more you wouldn’t be on the 
outside edge long. Why, you’re a peach of a 
sport-” 

“ Oh, do you really think so? ” 

“ I know it. But you hide yourself so. If 
you make a mistake, laugh. The crowd’ll 



Ruth Comes Out of Her Shell 167 

laugh with you, not at you. Do you see what 
I mean? ” 

“ I—I think so.” 

“ If you love chocolate sundaes, say so. If 

you hate spiders, say so. Say something-” 

“ That’s it. That’s always been my trouble. 
Everything I start to say sounds so silly.” 

“ It isn’t, if it’s what you’re thinking and 
feeling at the moment. It isn’t, because it’s 
you. And everybody wants to know you, just 
as you want to know other people. Get that? ” 
“ I—I believe I do.” 

“ There goes the music again and I have to 
go back because I asked Bee for it.” 

Ruth rose instantly. 

“ Surely,” she said politely, but Tom put out 
a hand and laid it on her shoulder. 

“ Glad you came here? ” 

Ruth nodded. 

“ Glad we talked? ” 

Ruth nodded again. 

“ Then why in the name of time don’t you 
say so, instead of giving me a stiff ‘ Surely,’ as 
though nothing had been said and no progress 
had been made. See what I mean? ” 

Ruth nodded again. Tom laughed, tucked 




168 yeanne's House Party 

her hand under his arm and they started back 
for the pavilion. Once under the cover of the 
trees Ruth gave his big arm a tiny squeeze. 

“ Oh, I do like you and I am much obliged 
for the scolding. 5 ’ 

“ That’s it. That’s fine. That’s you talk¬ 
ing. Now give me some more. If you prac¬ 
tise enough on me, by and by you’ll be able to 
give it to the other boys. Then all will be rosy 
and happy and I shall be lost in the crowd that 
yaps at your heels for a smile.” 

“ No, you won’t, Tom Kelly,” Ruth told 
him, and though her eyes were laughing, her 
voice was serious. “ You’re my he, you 
know,” she ended, suddenly audacious. 



“You're My He You Know/’ She Ended 







CHAPTER XI 


RUTH LOSES A FRIEND 

Ruth found Steve waiting for her when she 
got back and with a sense of elation which 
seemed to put her heart on tiptoe, she smiled 
up at him as they glided off together. A look 
of surprise showed in his eyes for a moment, 
then he smiled back. 

“ Hello,” Ruth said impulsively. 

“ Hello, yourself. What’s the matter? ” 

“ Nothing,” she told him. “ Absolutely 
nothing; everything is Tighter than it’s ever 
been, and it’s all because of Tom Kelly.” 

She was talking now, talking fast, as 
thoughts came to her, and her realization of 
Steve’s interest enabled her to go on. He 
asked her what she meant and she told him. 

“ I’ve always wanted to pal around with 
boys the way Bee does. Not the way Carol 
does. I couldn’t play her way, flirting and 

laughing and saying nothing, but I could be 

169 


170 Jeanne s House Party 

like Bee, I thought, only I didn’t know how. 
Well, Tom’s showing me how, that’s all.” 

“ I always thought you had a lot more to say 
than you said,” Steve said. 

“ Did you really? Well,” it was queer, she 
thought, how easy it was to make revelations 
once you started, “ I’ve simply ached to talk 
to you, Steve, and you never gave me any 
help.” 

“ I’m awfully sorry,” he told her in honest 
apology. “ It’s hard for me, too, you know. 
I like to talk about sports and college and boy 
things that most girls aren’t interested in.” 

“ But I am; that’s just what I like to talk 
about.” 

Their tongues went as fast as their feet and 
when their feet got tangled, Ruth, instead of 
becoming confused and apologizing, laughed 
gaily and told him it was all his fault. It was 
an adventure for her, this first entering into a 
girl’s domain, and she thrilled to the excite¬ 
ment of it. Steve left her with regret, assur¬ 
ing her he’d be back again soon, and Ruth, 
nodding a happy bow to him, drifted off with 
Harry in an unconcern that surprised herself. 

Harry was easy. He always had been the 


Ruth Loses a Friend 171 

easiest one of them all to talk to. He carried 
on such a string of nonsense himself that no 
one ever had to make an effort. The difference 
lay in the fact that to-night Ruth enjoyed 
it and met him half-way, while before her 
laughter had been constrained and self-con¬ 
scious. 

Tom was back looking for her soon after 
that, and they danced together quite without 
speech. Then they went up to the swing again 
and Tom gave her more encouragement and 
more advice that moved Ruth to both tears and 
laughter. They forgot the time, and the next 
dance was well under way before Tom sprang 
to his feet in dismay. 

“ Oh, I’m terribly sorry. I have this with 
Carol. It’s the first one I’ve been able to get.” 

They hurried back to the pavilion to find 
Carol sitting by the chaperones. It was her 
first experience as a wall flower and she was 
furious. Her face was dead white, her eyes 
blazing when Tom approached her with his 
apology. 

Without a word she rose and went off with 
him but her glance at Ruth was filled with hate. 
Ruth missed it and dropped down beside Mrs. 


172 "Jeanne's House Party 

Stafford quite unmindful of the fact that she 
was the extra girl again. 

Tom and Carol did not reappear after the 
dance, and when the musicians climbed down 
from their lofty platform hung from the ceil¬ 
ing in the center of the room and announced 
a half hour’s intermission, all the young people 
went down for ice-cream. Still Carol and 
Tom did not appear, and Steve, walking along 
by Ruth, said in a low voice: 

“ She’s getting her hooks on him—or trying 
to.” 

“ What do you mean? ” Ruth asked. 

“ Oh, the boys all fall for Carol—at first.” 

“ Don’t they like her now? ” 

“ Not as well as they did in the beginning.” 

“ Why not? ” 

“ Well,” Steve hunted for words—“ she 
hasn’t got what Jeanne and Bee and you have 
•—reserve, I guess you call it. She’s—familiar. 
That’s all.” 

Carol and Tom appeared before they had 
quite finished their refreshments and joined 
them at the two tables they had just put to¬ 
gether. 

Carol refused anything to eat but when Tom 




Ruth Loses a Friend 173 

started to light a cigarette, she daringly leaned 
over and nipped it out of his mouth. 

“ Thanks,” she said coolly, tapping it dain¬ 
tily. “I’m dying for one. Light, please.” 

It was the first time she had openly done this 
and though everyone there knew she smoked in 
secret, it came as a surprise to them all. She 
leaned back in her chair and met Tom’s steady 
look with a bravado that she did not feel, 
for in his level gaze was a something she 
did not like and was not accustomed to see¬ 
ing. 

“ You will get no light from me,” said Tom. 

“Shocked?” she asked with a pretended 
carelessness. 

“ Oh, no. Only—sorry to see you spoil a 
lovely picture. It doesn’t fit in, somehow, that 
thing, with the loveliness of your face and 
person.” 

“ Charming, Mr. Kelly,” Carol said lightly, 
but there was a flash in her eves. “ I don’t 
quite get you.” 

“ Why, it’s just like a black streak on a per¬ 
fect painting, that’s all. It doesn’t go. It 
spoils it all. I can’t say it any better than 
that.” 


174 Jeanne s House Party 

The rest of the people had been listening, 
wondering how Carol would meet the honest 
criticism that she had called down on herself. 
What she did was to laugh and say with mock 
seriousness: 

“ I’m sorry my efforts to please you have 
failed. It’s the disappointment of my life.” 
Then she turned her back on Tom and devoted 
herself to Harry. As soon as the music 
started again up on the hill she jumped up and 
touching Harry on the shoulder led him back 
to the pavilion. 

It was the first time Carol’s audacity had 
not called forth admiration from a new boy. 
But she had reckoned without remembering 
that Tom was more man than boy, more ex¬ 
perienced than anyone else she had ever met, 
therefore better able to make fair judgments 
and comparisons. He was neither shocked, 
surprised nor admiring. While granting her 
right to smoke his manner indicated that in so 
doing something intrinsically precious left her, 
a something that spoiled the picture she made 
and the idea he liked to have about her. They 
danced together again and words flashed be¬ 
tween them, which left Tom cooler and blunter 


Ruth Loses a Friend 175 

than ever, and tended to increase Carol’s reck¬ 
lessness. 

She had failed utterly in spite of her be¬ 
coming black dress and coiled hair to make a 
hit with Jeanne’s sailor friend and when she 
saw Ruth returning for the third time with him 
from the darkness of the trees her jealousy 
found vent in a hissed little speech that reached 
them both. 

“ Captivated Monsieur Kelly, haven’t you? 
Wonder if he’d like you so well if he knew 
you’d smoked in private a few times your¬ 
self? ” 

Ruth’s face went white in her sudden an¬ 
ger and scorn. Then the dull red surged up 
and she turned her great gray eyes on 
Tom. 

“ Oh, she’s told me all about that,” he said 

easilv. “ Told me she didn’t like it and wasn’t 

%/ 

going to do it any more.” 

“ Clever of her.” Carol’s words cut Ruth 
to the quick, for there was not a streak of mean¬ 
ness in her make-up and the one bright spot in 
her life that summer had been her belief that 
a girl of Carol’s charm and beauty had 
genuinely liked her, had given her a real friend- 


176 yeanne s House Party 

ship. Her hurt lay in her eyes that she again 
lifted to Tom. 

44 Well, you see,” Tom drawled slowly, 44 we 
settled it the first dance, didn’t w^e, Ruth, that 

“ I’m her he 
She’s my she-” 

He caught her arm and led her to the dance 
floor singing: 

“ I love her— 

She loves me.” 

Carol, hearing them, clenched her teeth and sat 
down again, the extra girl for the second time 
that evening. 

44 She’s as dumb as she can be,” Ruth carried 
on the verse, laughing up at him. 

44 But she’s not too dumb for me,” he 
finished. 44 1 was going to ask her for this 
dance, but not after that. Nope. Not after 
that. She’s got a lot to learn, that kid.” 

44 You going to teach her? ” Ruth inquired 
slyly, determined not to let thoughts of Carol 
spoil her pleasure to-night anyway. 

He grinned down at her. 

‘ 44 You’re getting a little too good with your 



Ruth Loses a Friend 177 

swift repartee/’ he told her. “ No, I think one 
pupil at a time is all I can manage.” 

“ Don’t teach me all you know in one even¬ 
ing, will you?” Ruth begged. “Make it 
last.” 

“ I’ll say you’re learning fast,” Tom re¬ 
marked, looking down at her in surprise. “ My 
guess is that you’ll be telling me things before 
my vacation is over.” 

On the way to the boat that night Tom 
walked between Jeanne and Ruth. Back in 
the park the lights were tiny golden balls. 
Faint music drifted through the darkness to 
their ears. Out in the open myriads of stars 
covered the sky and the water kissed the rocky 
shore tenderly. Tom stopped suddenly. 

“ This is simply great,” he said solemnly, 
“ and I’m darned lucky to have two such girls 
as vou are for friends.” 

But Ruth, walking silently by his side, with 
his big hand giving her arm an understanding 
squeeze once in a while, knew that she was the 
lucky one because for her a dear dream—the 
most precious she had ever had—was beginning 
to come true. 


178 Jeanne s House Party 

Carol’s pique was not a passing affair. She 
nursed it until it grew into a life-size jealousy, 
and Ruth, rooming with her, found the inti¬ 
macy almost unbearable. Carol said as little 
as possible in their privacy together but when 
she did speak, her words were barbed with 
venom. Over and over again she hurt Ruth 
with her insinuations until the slow color would 
surge up into Ruth’s cheeks and she would 
walk out, closing the door very silently behind 
her, her eyes blazing fires in their deep gray 
depths. 

In the crowd they could keep apart and noth¬ 
ing was noticed by the others except that Carol, 
in her failure to win Tom’s attention and in¬ 
terest, had become shriller of voice, more 
reckless of manner and impudent in tone. 
Her attitude toward Mrs. Stafford bordered 
on insulting—a slight return of the imperious 
overbearing way with which she had treated 
M’amselle. Mrs. Stafford appeared not to 
notice it until one time when Carol’s rudeness 
was too great to be overlooked. It was the 
morning that a brief letter came from Jack 
saying he was in America and would travel up 
from New York as soon as he was able in a 


Ruth Roses a Friend 179 

hydroplane with a friend of his who was 
in the air service of the United States. 

“ Oh,” Bee cried at once with enthusiasm, 
“ do you suppose we could all have a ride in 
it?” 

“ Ask Jack. Possibly he could arrange it,” 
Mrs. Stafford suggested. 

“ I’m going to have a ride, anyway, if no¬ 
body else does,” Carol stated with a tossing of 
her head that meant business. 

“ How will you manage it? ” Tom inquired. 

Carol’s smile was disdainful. 

“ Oh, there are so many ways to smuggle a 
ride,” she said airily. 44 Jeanne knows some of 
them.” 

44 Carol,” Mrs. Stafford said quietly, 44 1 
must forbid you to take a ride in the hydro¬ 
plane unless you have the willingness of 
Mr. Pryce, who is driving it, and my consent 
at the time.” 

A dangerous flash came into Carol’s eyes. 
The forbidding of a thing always roused her 
temper. She rose and moved toward the door. 

44 Forbid all you want,” she muttered, 44 it 
won’t do any good.” 

44 Carol.” * 


180 yeanne's House Party 

Some quality in Mrs. Stafford’s voice electri¬ 
fied the company and held Carol an unwilling 
listener at the doorway. 

“ Look at me, Carol.” 

Carol turned an angry face toward her aunt 
who had not moved but whose very repression 
lent force to her words. “ If you speak to me 
like that again while you are under my roof, I 
shall take it into my hands to engage a com¬ 
panion for you who will accompany you home 
at once.” 

“ What’s gotten into her? ” Tom asked Ruth 
later and Ruth told him frankly: 

“ She’s jealous. You give your time and 
attention to all of us except her. She’s not 
used to it. And she-” 

Then Ruth, out of a sore, bruised heart told 
him of Carol’s meanness to her. She had not 
spoken of it to Jeanne or Bee. It had seemed 
a shame to pile any more troubles on Jeanne 
who took the unhappiness of her guests so 
greatly to heart, and Ruth had been afraid if 
she confided in Bee that she would tell Jeanne. 

“ It’s simply that I don’t know what to do,” 
she ended to Tom. “ I don’t know how to act. 
Whether to say nothing or scratch back at her.” 



Ruth Loses a Friend 181 

“ That never does any good,” Tom said. 
“ I guess you’ll have to hold on to yourself, 
Ruth. It’s stiff business, but—don’t you see? 
Whoever has the biggest spirit has to show it. 
She’ll learn her lesson some time. You’ll have 
to wait until she does.” 

“ When will she, I wonder? Who’s going 
to teach her? ” 

“ Not I. That’s certain. She won’t take 
anything from me now.” 

“ The thing that hurts so,” Ruth said in a 
low voice, “ oh, it isn’t what she says, but it’s 
because it’s she saying it. We were friends, 
you see, at least I thought we were.” 

Tom nodded. 

“ And—and—friendship means something. 
Tom, you know it does. You can’t blow hot 
and blow cold, be nice and be horrid, and ex¬ 
pect people to keep on counting on you, liking 
you. Why, I feel so different about Carol.” 
She stopped suddenly. “ I’d die of loneliness 
if it weren’t for you, Tom Kelly,” she told him, 
and there was a hint of tears in her eyes. 

“ You’re missing the chance of a lifetime,” 
he told her in his matter-of-fact way. 

“ What do you mean? ” 


182 “Jeanne's House Party 

“ This is your chance to get closer to 
Jeanne and Bee. Don’t you see it? You’ve 
been so taken up with Carol, have given her 
your interest and sympathy so that you’ve 
overlooked the other two. And they’re each 
worth a heap more than Carol.” 

“ I know it. But ”—a little of the old 
bitterness crept into her voice, “ they don’t 
need me.” 

“No, they don’t need you,” Tom said 
honestly, his blue eyes meeting her gray ones 
steadily. “ But they want you. They told 
me so,” he added deliberately. 


CHAPTER XII 


THE REGATTA 

Jeanne saw, even before Tom told her, how 
things were going between Carol and Ruth, 
for there soon developed a chilly politeness that 
was obvious to the most blind. And Jeanne, 
trying her best to understand it, came about as 
near to the truth as Carol, who not thinking, 
merely feeling, did herself. Carol, it must be, 
was not possessed of a large enough soul to be 
glad that her efforts to help Ruth make herself 
attractive had at last won their reward. Theo¬ 
retically she wanted Ruth to enjoy herself, but 
practically she, Carol, must enjoy herself first 
and more. Up until Tom’s coming she had, 
but Tom’s frank preference for Ruth’s society 
to hers, coupled with his outspokenness to her, 
had roused in her jealousy as well as a desire 
for revenge. There was also the vague con¬ 
sciousness that her first charm had worn off 
for the other boys. Her manner, in the begin¬ 
ning interesting because audacious, had become 

183 


184 ^Jeannes House Parly 

an old story, and was tinged with imperious¬ 
ness now, an imperiousness that had been en¬ 
dured by M’amselle, but was not to be brooked 
by persons as young as herself. 

Carol, these days, was the odd girl in the 
house, for Harry invariably was to be found 
by Jeanne’s side, and Steve with Bee. With 
Ted still laid up and Victor indifferent as he 
had always been, the future did not look very 
promising to a girl of Carol’s temperament. 
She took out her spite on Ruth. 

All this Jeanne dimly realized, and it 
prompted her to hold out a warm hand to Ruth, 
to draw her in with Bee and herself in their 
jokes and confidences—the little ways that 
mean companionship. Ruth responded ea¬ 
gerly and was to be found more often dressing 
in their room than in her own, consulting them 
about the clothes she should wear instead of 
Carol; giving them shyly, bit by bit, the secret 
thoughts that Carol had never had, because 
Ruth had never surely felt sympathy or trust¬ 
worthiness in Carol. 

“ I never saw such a change in a girl in my 
life,” Bee said to Jeanne one day of Ruth. 
“ She’s—she’s just come alive.” 


!The Regatta 185 

“ Isn’t it wonderful? ” Jeanne agreed. “ It 
is making me so happy. And Tom’s to be 
thanked for it. He dug her out first.” 

“ Yes, he did,” Bee agreed, “ and it is 
peachy of him. He’s like that.” 

“ Yes,” Jeanne agreed, “ he’s just like that.” 
She laughed a little and went on, “ Isn’t it too 
bad, that having at last got Ruth’s happiness 
fixed, Carol’s is all mixed up?” Her face 
puckered into a frown. “ She had such a good 
time at first- and now-” 

“ Now what? ” Ruth demanded, opening the 
door. 

“ Now it’s time to go swimming. You’ve 
got to practise your swan dive, Ruth, or Carol 
will beat you at it.” 

Bee was referring to the Regatta. 

Under the leadership of Mr. Allen, the event 
had taken on rather large proportions. All 
the cottage owners with boats were induced to 
decorate and enter theirs in a grand parade. 
This was scheduled first. There were to be 
canoe races for older boys and girls, rowboat 
races for younger boys and girls, tub races, 
swimming races, diving contests, greased pole 
contests and tilting contests. The Regatta 



186 ^Jeanne s House Party 

was set for the last Saturday in July and that 
was only a few days off. 

Carol and Ruth were entered in the short 
dash, the one quarter mile swim and the diving 
contest. They were each of them asked to 
steady canoes during the tilting contest. Tom 
had asked Jeanne to paddle for him. Steve 
had chosen Ruth as his paddler and Harry had 
asked Bee. The Allen girls were paddling for 
their cousins and Vic finally asked Carol who 
tossed her head airily and said she’d think about 
it. 

People from cottages all over the lake had 
been interested in the affair and it promised 
to be the biggest excitement of the season. 

Friday was a dull gray day threatening rain 
for Saturday, but fortunately a heavy thunder¬ 
storm during the night cleared the air so that 
the day dawned as it should,—clear, bright and 
cool with just enough wind to make waves 
that would guarantee excitement during the 
tilting contest. 

During the morning eveiyone was busy 
decorating the boats. Carol and the twins 
were to trim the canoe; the rest of Jeanne’s 
house party had charge of the launch. When 


The Regatta 187 

they finally took their place in line hidden be¬ 
hind a curve of the shore from the spectators 
who thronged on the beach, they all realized 
they hadn’t a ghost of a chance of winning even 
honorable mention for their decorations. They 
had all been more interested in other events 
and had, as a consequence, trimmed their boat 
in the easiest and quickest way, without much 
thought. When the Allens’ launch, fixed like 
a tropical garden with oranges hung in trees, 
real squirrels clambering about in the branches, 
and a fountain spraying in the midst of the 
loveliness, passed by the judges’ stand, it was 
known at once that they would get the prize. 

The twins, Harry and Steve, won first 
prize in the boys’ canoe race and Ted, on 
crutches now, reclining in an invalid chair, 
slapped them on the back as they passed, re¬ 
marking: 

“ If you had the Van Tyne twins to buck, 
it’s dollars to doughnuts that prize paddle 
wouldn’t be in your hands.” He eyed it en¬ 
viously. 

“ Easy to talk,” laughed Harry. But Ted 
had been right. He and Victor had paddled 
together for years. Harry and Steve had only 


i88 "Jeanne's House Party 

begun this summer and had won b} r sheer 
strength of endurance. It had been hard to 
let the laurels go to strangers without being 
able to lift a finger to keep them. But Vic 
had refused to paddle with anyone other than 
his brother. 

Two girls from Neshobe Beach, a few miles 
up the lake, beat Ruth and Bee in the girls’ 
canoe race. The tub races, rowboat races and 
greased pole contests were for younger chil¬ 
dren. Before the diving and swimming con¬ 
test came the tilting contest. Carol had finally 
consented to paddle for Victor. She and Vic 
were called first to struggle against Jeanne and 
Tom. It is probable that Carol was more 
skillful with the paddle than Jeanne. To off¬ 
set this it was evident that Tom was steadier 
on his feet, and quicker to thrust the long pad¬ 
ded pole at Vic. The fight was exciting but 
excitement steeled Carol’s nerves, while it made 
Jeanne a bit hilarious. At anv rate, there 
flashed up in Carol a feeling of hatred for this 
man who had humiliated her by his indifference 
and she coolly determined to help Vic douse 
him. Her eye never missed a move, her body 
was lightning in its movements to help right 


The Regatta 189 

and steady her canoe, and after an exciting 
three minutes, Tom with a laugh and Jeanne 
with a shriek fell into the water. 

This thrilled Carol. She waited eagerly for 
Steve and Ruth to upset Harry and Bee, then 
with a feeling of confidence, she and Vic came 
at Ruth’s canoe where Steve was standing 
coolly waiting for them. 

Carol was as determined to spill Ruth as 
she had been to spill Tom, but the match was 
more than even this time. Ruth was as good 
a paddler as she, and Steve infinitely more self- 
possessed than Vic. They edged and circled, 
lunged, parried and tilted for five minutes. 
Finally a slight disturbance on shore distracted 
Carol for a second. In that moment Steve 
had thrust, Vic had caught the wadded pole 
fairly in his shoulder and had recovered, but 
Carol, unprepared, did not dig her paddle into 
the water. Over they went. 

It was utterly unimportant except that 
Carol was chagrined. She had wanted to beat 
Ruth and she had failed. There were still 
the swimming and diving contests, however, 
and she was determined to shine in one or both 
events. 


i9° Jeanne's House Party 

There were other entries, of course, for the 
girls’ swimming races, but it was at once clear 
that Ruth and Carol were by far the best swim¬ 
mers. The short dash came first. There were 
eight entries. Tom was one of the judges with 
Mr. Allen. Carol’s foot slipped as she dove 
off the float,—an accident that might have hap¬ 
pened to anyone,—and her chances for beating 
Ruth here were spoiled. She came in a close 
second but her face as she rose from the water 
was clouded with disappointment. This had 
been the one event she had been sure of. For 
Ruth, though stronger, and possessing more en¬ 
durance and a more even speed in a long race, 
could not cut through the water in a dash as 
Carol could. Carol, resting after the event, 
while the boys vied with each other, vowed with 
clenched teeth that she would beat Ruth in the 
quarter mile, anyhow. 

“ Hard luck, Carol,” Ruth said. “ You 
should have won that.” 

“ Oh, I’ll beat you yet,” Carol cried in a 
shrill voice. “ Watch me.” 

Tom heard her and glanced at her curiously. 
She was taking it seriously—this fun. As 
though winning were in some way a revenge. 


The Regatta 191 

The same eight girls entered for the quarter 
mile race. Tom and Mr. Allen were again 
judges. Tom, in a boat, saw Ruth and Carol 
pull easily away from the other six and leave 
them far behind. They were both swimming 
splendidly and seemed to be neck and neck. 
No—three-quarters of the way across, Ruth 
was gaining a little, ever so slightly; her strong, 
steady, single overhand stroke pulled her past 
Carol. She was not looking—her back was 
turned to Carol, her eyes on Tom in the boat, 
the goal past which she must go. She could 
not see what Tom saw. 

Ruth had gained twice the length of her 
body when Carol, turning on her other side, saw 
how far ahead she was; instantly she put her 
face in the water, and started her Australian 
crawl. She would, she knew, overtake Ruth, 
but she would lose terribly her breath control 
and her strength. But they were too near the 
goal now for her not to speed up. 

On she splashed, heading, oddly enough, 
straight for Ruth. The diagonal course would 
take longer. Had she, with her face under 
water, lost her sense of direction, Tom won¬ 
dered? She was gaining, was so close to Ruth 


l 9 2 Jeanne s House Party 

now that her splashing caught Ruth’s ears. 
She realized that Carol was making a heart¬ 
breaking effort to outdistance her. Carol was 
nearly even with her now and still carrying 
on. 

Suddenly Tom saw Carol lift her face out 
of the water, and shake her head, gasping for 
air. For the briefest second the two girls’ eyes 
met, then Carol’s face went down again; she 
turned her course as though suddenly realizing 
she was interfering—getting in Ruth’s way. 
But as she struck out again Tom saw Ruth 
flounder, she missed a stroke, recovered, then 
with a glance of scorn at Carol’s back, she 
fought hard to regain what that moment’s 
pause had cost her. It was a splendid finish, 
the girls coming in so close that the audience 
could not be sure which had won. 

But Ruth knew, and Carol knew, that she 
had pulled past Tom’s boat about six inches 
ahead, and Ruth, her eyes downcast, Carol, her 
face lifted expectantly, waited for Tom’s de¬ 
cision. 

“ Ruth Winfield wins the quarter mile! ” 
Tom announced to the people on shore through 
his megaphone. Then his cool blue eyes met 


The Regatta 193 

Carol’s hot ones, passed from her to Ruth and 
both girls knew Tom had seen Carol’s delib¬ 
erate kick that had spoiled Ruth’s stroke. 

Carol, pleading exhaustion after the swim, 
withdrew her name from the diving contest 
and disappeared. Ruth, therefore, won this 
also. Afterward she sought Tom with a 
troubled glance. 

“ She really won, Tom.” 

“ You know how,” he replied. “ It made me 
boil. I couldn’t let her get away with it.” 

“ Maybe it was an accident. It might have 
been.” 

“ Didn’t you see her face? ” 

“Yes—but oh! but I wish you hadn’t,” 
Ruth said miserably. 


CHAPTER XIII 


JACK 

“ To-day Jack comes,” Bee announced. 

“ I am going to go right down to the Horse¬ 
shoe after breakfast and camp there for the rest 
of the day,” said Carol. “ Nothing and no¬ 
body will budge me from that place.” 

“ They have a wonderful day to travel up in 
their aeroplane,” Mrs. Stafford observed, 
glancing through the clear windows at the 
sparkling outdoors. 

It was indeed beautiful. A bright sun had 
early shredded a thick fog until the last bit 
clinging to the top of old Bear Cat had dis¬ 
appeared into the blue sky. The world looked 
washed and clean and happy, and the air was 
filled with the warm sweet scent of evergreens 
drawn out by the heat of the sun. 

“ What time will they come, Jeanne, do you 
know? ” Tom asked. 

She looked up from her plate and shook her 

194 


l 95 

head. Her big brown eyes were starry with 
excitement, and her cheeks were flushed. 
Tom, looking at her, thought she had never 
appeared lovelier. She was wearing a blue 
jersey sport dress, its short skirt falling in 
graceful pleats over her slim young figure. A 
bandanna, gay in Paisley colorings, was knot¬ 
ted about her shoulders. But there was some¬ 
thing other than her attractive clothes that 
drew all eyes to her. It was the glow of ex¬ 
citement and the odd far-away look in her eyes 
that gave teasing comments a pause. Jack’s 
coming was to mean more to Jeanne than to 
anyone there. 

True to her promise, Carol departed with 
cushions and fancy work to a shady spot in the 
open field after breakfast. The boys after 
getting the drinking water from the spring 
followed her, and Bee and Ruth, whose turn it 
was to wipe dishes, hurried through their tasks 
in order to join them. 

By eleven o’clock the excitement was intense. 
Everyone on the Point was either in the field 
or peering from porches and cottage windows. 
It was thrilling enough to have an aeroplane 
land in their midst, and stay long enough to 



196 "Jeanne s House Party 

be examined and talked over and—who knows? 
—give them a ride—some of the lucky ones, 
that is—but add to that an injured doctor, a 
returned war hero, the brother of one of the 
girls, the man who had discovered and saved 
Jeanne Lanier! Conversation buzzed and 
bumbled in the heat of the day until Tom, ap¬ 
pearing finally, declared they sounded like a 
swarm of angry bees. 

Suddenly a faint humming noise came to 
their ears. It grew louder and louder until in 
the blue distance far up over the lake, some¬ 
one spied a tiny black speck. 

“ It’s coming! I see it! ” Carol cried. 

They were all on their feet in a minute 
watching the speck grow larger, hover for an 
instant over the lake and then swoop down to¬ 
ward them. 

“ Where’s Jeanne, Tom? ” Ruth asked in a 
low voice. 

“ Isn’t she here? ” He looked about him. 

“ She hasn’t been all the morning. She 
must hear it, but I do think someone ought to 
find her and make sure.” 

Tom nodded and ran, unobserved, back to 
the house. 



ms 



Her Face Lifted to the Great Gray Aeroplane 











i 9 7 

It was silent and apparently empty. He 
called Jeanne by name once or twice but no one 
answered. Katie and Mrs. Stafford were 
down waiting with the crowd. In some per¬ 
plexity he went part way up the stairs and 
called again, softly. 

“ I’m here,” finally came answer from 
Jeanne’s room. “ Come up, Tom.” 

In two leaps Tom stood by the open door, 
looking with some amazement at Jeanne kneel¬ 
ing by the window, her back to him, her face 
lifted to the great gray aeroplane that was now 
thundering down toward the meadow. She 
rose and came toward him. Her eyes were 
filled with tears though a smile was on her lips. 
She laid a cold little hand on Tom’s and said: 

“ I can’t go down there—and meet him— 
with all of them there staring. I can’t explain 

why. I’d cry-” she dabbed at her eyes, 

then flung up her head and pushed Tom from 
her. “ Go down, if you please,—and whisper 
to my Dr. Jack that I am waiting here. Will 
you, Tom? ” 

And Tom, looking down into the lovely face 
so near his, felt his heart jump and then go 
thumping heavily in his chest. What wouldn’t 






198 Jeanne's House Party 

he do for her? He patted her hand gently,; 
told her of course, and he understood, and Jack 
would be up here in a few moments. Now she 
must dry her eyes and come down and be ready 
for him. 

Jeanne laid a wet cheek against his coat 
sleeve for a brief moment. 

“ How you always help me! ” she mur¬ 
mured. “Always. Up ladders on boats, and 
down-stairs in houses.” She laughed a little 
tremulously. “ Your goodness to me curls 
around my heart like a warm hand. It is pre¬ 
cious to have you for a friend. Now go. I 
will be down in a moment.” 

But she didn’t go down in a moment. She 
dropped on her bed and sat with hands clasped 
and from there she slipped suddenly to her 
knees again, not saying a word, not thinking, 
scarcely breathing. Just waiting for the 
moment to pass until she heard footsteps come 
crunching up the stony walk and mount the 
verandah steps. An odd tapping noise came 
with the steps. 

Her feet were winged as she flew down to 
the shadowed living-room. There she stood 
perfectly still, her heart knocking as the screen 


jacR 199 

door opened and a hauntingly familiar figure 
entered. For a second they stared at each 
other, then Jack’s cane was flung aside as 
Jeanne with a low cry sprang forward, both 
hands out to meet his, a sob choking the words 
in her throat. 

She saw a Dr. Jack whose hair was still 
bronzed and crisp and wavy, whose figure was 
still stalwart and straight but whose laughing 
eyes were hidden behind dark glasses and 
whose laughing mouth was set in a straight 
line. 

“ Take ’em off, Dr. Jack,” Jeanne said in 
a trembling little voice. “ Can’t you for a 
minute? ” 

But he shook his head and at that Jeanne 
quite suddenly flung her arms about his neck, 
drew his face down and kissed him. 

“ Oh, I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “ But 
oh! Dr. Jack! Oh! Dr. Jack! I’m so glad 
to have you here.” 

“Jeanne! Little Jeanne!” He still held 
her hands but pushed her from him to examine 
her more closely. “ How you have grown up! 
Why, I don’t know you at all.” 

“ Oh, Dr. Jack! Don’t say that. Because 


200 


'Jeanne's House Party 

I am just the same inside me.” She smiled 
with a strange bright wistfulness at him. 

“ I wonder if you are.” He looked at her 
a long moment. “ Are you happy? ” 

Jeanne drew a long breath, put a hand on 
her breast and answered quite simply: 

“ Now I am.” 

They went out on the verandah, Jeanne 
leading him by the arm because she could not 
bear to see him feel his way with his cane, and 
sat in the swing. The rest of the people were 
still crowded about Mr. Pryce and the aero¬ 
plane. Jack turned to her suddenly. Didn’t 
she want to go down? He was going to take 
them for a ride—her friends of the house party 
at least. Didn’t she want a ride? Truly? 

Then he watched with some delight the del¬ 
icately changing color in Jeanne’s face as she 
replied: 

“ I’d be willing to miss a million rides to see 
you alone for a little while.” It was said 
softly with a frankness that relieved it from 
sentimentality. Then stretching out a little 
hand to lay it on his, Jeanne lifted her lovely 
brown eyes and went on: 

“ I have thought so much about you, Dr. 



201 


Jack, and I have prayed so hard for you to 
come back to me, and when I knew you were 
going to I was terribly afraid I would cry 
when I first saw you. Which was a thing I 
did not want the others to see. Did I cry? ” 

“ A little. But so did I.” 

“And we used to have such big laughs to¬ 
gether; do you remember. Dr. Jack? ” 

“ Indeed I do, but can’t you call me Jack 
now, Jeanne, without the Dr.? ” 

Jeanne looked at him with a funny little 
look in her eyes. 

“ If I call you Jack, just plain Jack,” she 
said, “ it would make me feel very fresh.” 

Jack tipped back his head and roared with 
delight. 

“ You are the same.” 

“ But I will do it,” Jeanne said deter¬ 
minedly. “ How long can you stay with us 
here—Jack? ” 

“ I don’t think I’ll ever be able to tear my¬ 
self away,” he answered. 

“ There’s nothing sick about your tongue, 
anyway.” 

“ My tongue can still wag, and my heart 
can still be very glad or very sad, and all the 



202 


Jeanne's House Party 

rest of me ”—he stretched his arms, tensing 
his muscles and then relaxing—“ all the rest 
of me feels like a spirited colt. It’s just these 
—eyes.” 

“ Yes,” Jeanne said softly, “ but they will 
be all right in time.” 

“ It’s going to take a long time, Jeanne.” 

“ I hope it does, Jack,” Jeanne said 
fiercely. “ I hope it takes till the war is over.” 

They were alone together for about an hour. 
Then Katie came hustling back, talking to her¬ 
self as she hurried. 

“—an’ him shtayin’ to lunch—and it twelve 
o’clock now—an’ apple-sauce to make—an’ 
biscuits for the crowd av thim-” 

She threw up her hands and groaned as she 
walked by the verandah to the back door. 

“What’s the matter, Katie?” 

Katie stopped in her tracks. 

“ It’s that Misther Kelly, Miss Jeanny.” 
(Katie could not be persuaded that the last 
“e” in Jeanne’s name was not to be pro¬ 
nounced. “ Phwat’s it there for? ” she de¬ 
manded.) “ He eats a whole batch o’ biscuits 
at wan sitting and wonders whoy there aren’t 
more.” 




jacd 203 

Following her came Mrs. Stafford with 
Steve and Harry, Bee and Ruth. Carol 
trailed behind, talking animatedly to Mr. 
Pryce, who had been persuaded to stay for 
luncheon. Tom still hung over the aeroplane 
with a few others, and it took a shrill whistle 
to call him back even to Katie’s biscuits. 

Mrs. Stafford sat at the head of the long 
table and looked with pride and interest at the 
young people about her. The transformation 
in Ruth was a daily amazement to her. She 
sat talking to Mr. Pryce, making herself in¬ 
terested and interesting, her great gray eyes 
looking at a world she had discovered to be 
filled with friendliness and kind wishes, with 
an alertness that had not been there two weeks 
before. Once in a while a wave of self-con¬ 
sciousness would sweep over her and she would 
fall into silence, but Mrs. Stafford noticed that 
Tom’s eyes generally met hers at these 
moments; they would exchange a meaningful 
smile and Ruth would rise courageously to 
effort again. Her yellow sweater was invari¬ 
ably very becoming to her dark coloring. 

Carol had never been more attractive than 
she was at this moment. She was wearing a 


204 Jeanne's House Party 

black and white pleated skirt and a thin black 
sweater over a white blouse. Her hair had 
been blown about in her ride up in the aero¬ 
plane and she had not taken time up-stairs to 
rearrange it. Its rather attractive confusion 
about her face made her appear, for the first 
time since she had been there, unaware of her¬ 
self. And Mrs. Stafford believed, as she 
watched her listening to Dr. Jack who was 
talking quietly to her, that she really was for¬ 
getting herself for a moment. What could 
they be talking about? Dr. Jack was grave 
—or was it his dark glasses made him appear 
so? No, for Carol was grave too, more serious 
than anyone had ever seen her. Was it pos¬ 
sible there were undiscovered depths of sweet¬ 
ness and purpose in her? 

Steve and Harry were teasing Bee by 
snatching her biscuits from her plate. When 
she turned toward one, the other turned thief. 
At last in desperation she piled them in her 
lap and covered them with her napkin. 

‘'There! Now they’re safe!” she cried 
triumphantly, and proceeded to eat her dinner. 
No one noticed big Tom a little while later 
reach quietly under the table and somehow 


jacn 205 

get hold of the fringe of her napkin and jerk 
it to the floor. Much mystery when Bee in a 
few moments put her hand down in her lap and 
failed to find her hidden treasure. She ac¬ 
cused Steve, then Harry, but their sincere 
protestations of innocence were unmistakable. 

“—eleven, twelve, thirteen-” Tom mur¬ 

mured, biting into them as fast as he could. 
“ Findings—keepings. I guess I’ve had 
enough.” He turned a comical eye on a 
flattered Katie. 

But it was Jeanne of whom Mrs. Stafford 
was most proud. Jeanne whose dignity had 
daintiness, whose humor had charm, whose 
thoughtfulness was instinctive and whom no 
amount of flattering attention could seem to 
spoil. 




CHAPTER XIV 


THE BEACH PARTY 

Mrs. Stafford's first inclination was to 
coddle Jack and make a semi-invalid of him. 
It did not seem possible to her that a man 
could return from the front, after working 
eighteen and twenty hours a day, and after 
spending two months in a. hospital, and feel 
quite strong and ambitious. 

“ But these two months in the hospital 
made me, Aunt Bee,” he assured her laughing. 
“ I had nothing to do but eat and sleep for the 
first month. After that they gave me a little 
light work such as washing hundreds of dishes 
three times a day-” 

“ Hundreds! ” Carol cried. 

He nodded, smiling. 

“ And so soon as I was up, I began doing 
exercises to get in condition again. I didn’t 
know, you see, until the end of my stay there, 

that I wasn’t to go back to the front.” 

206 



"The Beach Party 207 

His mouth settled into its straight line again 
with an expression of pain. Jeanne laid a 
sympathetic hand on his sleeve, then spoke 
quickly. 

“So long as you feel so frisky, we will see 
that you frisk. We’ve been wanting a beach 
party for weeks and I think it’s time we had 
it to-night, don’t you, everybody? ” 

Everybody apparently did, so Jeanne told 
them of the “ Glen,” a delightful place about 
a quarter of a mile down the road. It was 
deeply caverned and rocky, and mysterious 
with deep black pools and echoes and filtering 
moonlight. 

“ You, Ruth, are appointed official cook,” 
Jeanne announced demurely. 

“ Thanks, awfully. Why this honor? ” 

“ Well, if you don’t, Bee or I have to and 
we’ve done it every time so far. We think 
you’ve learned how to cook outdoors by this 
time.” 

“ Yery well, but the cook reserves the right 
to choose two right hand assistants.” 

“ Volunteers allowed? ” Tom asked, looking 

up. 

“ If they happen to be the persons I had in 


208 yeanne's House Party 

mind,” Ruth answered with that new authority 
she found so surprisingly delightful. “.You, 
Tom, may build fireplaces and hunt water. 
Steve, you shall be general—what shall I 
say? ” 

“ Office boy or scullery servant, it’s one and 
the same,” Steve said dismally. “ I know 
what it means. I get more dirt and less food 
than anyone there.” 

They all laughed at that. Then Ruth sug¬ 
gested that before they go swimming the com¬ 
mittee ought to walk down there and pick out 
the best place for the supper. 

“ Some rocks make better tables and fire¬ 
places than others, you know.” 

“ Thev all make the same kind of chairs, 
though,” Harry, the thin one, observed. “ I 
alwavs find more bones in mvself on a picnic 
than at any other time.” 

They strolled down to the dusty road and 
leisurely made their way to the Glen. 

It was a hot day and they were all glad to 
drop down in the cool shadows of the great 
open caves where water dripped from mossy 
ever-changing rocks in a tantalizingly cool and 
deliberate way. 


The Beach Party 209 

44 If only we’d thought to wear our bathing 
suits.” Steve eyed the still black water en¬ 
viously. 

Jeanne shivered a little as she leaned over 
and looked into the depths of the pond. 

“ They say this has no bottom. There’s 
something sinister about it. It’s so dark and 
quiet. If I should ever fall into one of these 
pools I do believe I’d simply be too scared 
even to take a stroke.” 

She jumped up suddenly. 

“ Oh, don’t let’s have the picnic here. It’s 
too creepy. Let’s go back along that little 
path out toward the road again. There’s an 
open place there, where there’s grass and a big 
tree, and the caverns and rocks can be the 
background. I somehow don’t like sitting 
right in them. Under them.” 

The others seemed to share her feeling, so 
Ruth, as Mistress of Ceremonies, set Tom and 
Steve to work erecting a fireplace while the 
others strolled back toward the cottage to get 
ready for the swim. 

Jeanne was ahead, with Harry and Bee, 
so Carol found herself loitering along beside 
Jack whose blindness made him move more 


210 


"Jeanne s House Party 

slowly. For a reason unaccountable to herself 
she was silent, and in an increasing discomfort 
of mind she moved beside him, discarding as 
inappropriate all the light, laughing remarks 
that came so easily to her tongue with other 
boys. There were a million things she wanted 
to ask him, but there was something about Dr. 
Jack that checked presumptuous curious ques¬ 
tions. She finally flung out her hands and 
said in an irritated embarrassment: 

“ I don’t know how to talk to you. I don’t 
know what to say. I never felt so queer.” 

Her face was flushed, her voice petulant. 
Jack turned his gaze toward her. 

“ That’s it,” Carol said half laughing, half 
pouting. “ It’s your glasses; they’re so big— 
and black—and they spread all over your face. 
You can see me—and I can’t see you at all. I 
can’t see what you’re thinking.” 

“ I can’t see you as well as you think I can. 
It’s a sort of Blind Man’s Buff. I can’t see 
what you think, either. So, with both of us 
feeling our way-” 

“ We won’t get very far.” 

Jack stopped to light his pipe. His cane 
dropped from under his arm to the ground and 




211 


*The Beach Party 

Carol watched him grope about in the dust 
for it. Suddenly a little thrill of compassion 
ran through her. She stopped, picked up the 
cane, thrust it into his waiting fingers and 
walked along beside him in another embar¬ 
rassed silence. 

“ Thanks,” he said. Then a great deal later, 
he asked her if she had ever been hurt. 

“ Yes—no—yes,” she stammered. “ My— 
my feelings have been. Is that what you 
mean? ” 

“ Sometimes that’s the worst hurt of all, if 
it’s really your feelings and not your pride. 
When was it? ” 

Carol had been thinking of the day of the 
Regatta when Tom had given the race to Ruth 
instead of herself, but at his words about pride 
she flushed suddenly. There leaped to her 
mind another instance, the time when the 
doctor had told her there was nothing in the 
world keeping her in bed but selfishness 
and silliness. That too—had her pride been 
hurt? 

“ I guess,” she said, with a sudden meekness, 
“ I guess I don’t know the difference between 
pride and feelings.” 



212 


"Jeanne s House Party 

Jack laughed at that, quite suddenly, and 
Carol felt better. 

“ I wish you’d go on talking about that little 
girl you were telling me about at lunch. That 
was awfully interesting. What happened to 
her?” 

It was the story of another little fugitive like 
Jeanne. A little girl of twelve who had been 
separated from her family and whose later 
orphanage left her alone in a vast world. Dr. 
Jack had manoeuvred again and had succeeded 
in helping her to England where she was 
adopted by a maiden lady of mature years. 

“ I’d like to help somebody like that,” Carol 
said suddenly. Then she flushed. It was an 
unusual and unexpected thing for her to say, 
but Jack seemed not surprised. 

“You can,” he told her easily. “You could 
send a part of your allowance every month to 
the right authorities in France and it would 
help clothe and feed a child in one of the great 
camps like the one where Jeanne was cared for. 
You could pretend to adopt her for your own. 
You could write her letters—do you know 
French at all? ” 

“ Oh, yes! ” Carol assured him excitedly. 


21 3 


The Beach Party 

“ And you could exchange pictures 

“ Oh, that would be wonderful. Will you 
give me the address when we get back to the 
cottage, Dr. Jack? ” 

That was the beginning of a change in Carol 
that everyone saw and welcomed. Somehow 
Dr. Jack’s coming, his gravity, his helplessness, 
his experiences, had stripped Carol of all her 
gay artificiality. She wanted, with an unrea¬ 
soning and unreasonable passion, to have Dr. 
Jack like her, not to make the mistake with him 
that she had with Tom whose cheerful friendli¬ 
ness everyone except herself was enjoying. It 
was difficult for a while to find herself deprived 
of her usual resources of entertainment. It 
was not that Dr. Jack disapproved of the con¬ 
ceited, selfish, daring person she might be. If 
he had disapproved as Tom had she might have 
flared defiance again. But he simply ignored 
her. He simply turned those great dark 
glasses on her and then away from her when 
she lapsed into forgetfulness and snapped out 
something that bordered on rudeness or 
audacity. And she “ shrivelled up,” as she put 
it to herself. 

She wrote her first letter that afternoon, and 



214 Jeanne's House Party 

brought it, after the swim, to Jack for ap¬ 
proval. She had to read it to him, which was 
a bit of an embarrassment at first, but his 
whole bearing was so friendly and generous 
that it became very soon an easy matter not 
only to talk to him but to confide in him. 

“ I don’t want anybody to know I’m doing 
this. You won’t tell, will you? ” she asked, 
folding up the letter and slipping it in its 
envelope. 

“ Not if you’d rather I didn’t. But why, I 
wonder? ” 

Carol flushed. It was hard to explain. 
This course of action on her part was unex¬ 
pected and inexplicable. She shrank from the 
surprised stares and amused comments that she 
felt sure would follow her disclosure. She 
might even be suspected by honest Tom of 
“ playing up ” to win Jack’s admiration. 
Well, perhaps she was. She wasn’t sure. Her 
motive wasn’t clear to herself. She only knew 
she was enjoying herself since Jack came as 
she hadn’t for days. 

So she dressed that night for the Beach 
Party humming a little tune, and when Ruth 
came into the bedroom from Jeanne’s in her 


21 5 


"The Beach Party 

kimono, her hair brush in her hand, Carol quite 
forgot herself for a moment, looked up and 
smiled and cried: 

“ Oh, Ruth! I never saw your hair look so 
pretty! ” 

Ruth paused in amazement. Self-conscious¬ 
ness rushed back on Carol. The two girls 
stood and stared at each other in silence, then 
Ruth spoke eagerly: 

“ Why thanks, Carol. Does it really? 
What are you going to wear to-night? ” 

The ice was broken. The olive branch ex¬ 
tended and accepted. Ruth stayed in her own 
room and finished dressing for the first time in 
weeks and they went down-stairs together, 
chatting happily as in the first days of the 
house party. 

There was a slice of moon laughing in a rosy 
sky at sunset when Ruth, Tom and Steve 
walked down the road ahead of the crowd to 
get things started. In their absorption of 
building two fireplaces, one for cooking, one 
for comfort and cheer, they did not notice that 
the sunset soon faded and a gray blanket of 
clouds like a thin mist spread over the sky. 

The potatoes were boiling merrily, the corn 


216 Jeanne's House Party 

half cooked, the steak making a cheerful sizzle 
and the coffee sending out its pungent odor 
when the rest of the young people arrived. 
Darkness had fallen and Harry’s voice calling 
out to them surprised them. 

“ Water for the first and last course.” 

“ What do you mean? Is it raining? ” Ruth 
asked in amazement. 

“ I’d call it that,” and Harry, followed by 
the others, came under the shelter of the huge 
pine tree which had so spread its branches over 
the cooks and their fires that not a drop had 
penetrated. 

But the spirits of the crowd could not be 
dampened. They ate their supper leisurely 
with a fine sprinkle sifting down on them. 
When this turned to a steady little rain they 
huddled together under raincoats and sweaters 
and sang. But when it began to pour and 
puddles formed in their laps and the wet leaked 
down their necks they admitted themselves 
beaten and began to pack up to return. 

“ Why not go down to your boat house, 
Jeanne? ” someone suggested, “ and get cush¬ 
ions and finish our evening and our song-fete 
down there? ” 


The Beach Party 217 

“ Good idea,” Jeanne agreed enthusiasti¬ 
cally. 

So they stored away the pots and pans and 
other utensils in a box and stuffed it back on 
the floor of one of the cars. Then after burn¬ 
ing up the rubbish and leaving the picnic place 
as clean as they had found it, they themselves 
got into two cars (the Allens’ and Mrs. Staf¬ 
ford’s ) that were standing out in the rain, and 
were driven back to the boat house. 

Electric lights encased in Japanese lanterns 
were hung up-stairs in the glassed-in room 
where the Victrola stood and made it very at¬ 
tractive with their soft rosy glow, but per¬ 
versely enough the boys and girls did not want 
to stay indoors where it was warm and dry, and 
dance. They must go out on the wide balcony 
where the wet breeze blew a soft mist into their 
faces and the sound of the falling drops made 
music on the lake below. 

Cushions and an old mattress were hauled 
out of the closet from inside and spread out on 
the floor, then, shoulder to shoulder, they 
dropped down, resting their backs against the 
wall of the boat house. None of them could 
sing particularly well, but they all loved music 


2i 8 Jeanne s House Party 

and knew some of the popular songs as well as 
the old favorites. In the pauses between songs 
Tom would break out into some ditty that he 
had learned on shipboard. It was always 
rollicking, always funny, but Tom’s big un¬ 
trained voice conveyed an idea of noise rather 
than music. 

At last they wearied and one by one fell 
silent. The dripping of the rain from the roof 
into the water below was the only sound to be 
heard except for their voices which now and 
then broke the quiet. At last a brightness 
seemed to fill the sky, and as the clouds rolled 
away in the darkness the silver moon cut the 
black heavens like a sickle. 

“ Oh, it is lovely,” Jeanne sighed. 

“ Most wonderful place in the world,” Carol 
added. 

A sigh of agreement from Ruth, a grunt 
from Bee, and the spell was broken. Up they 
jumped, stretching stiffened limbs, and with the 
contrariness of youth, now that the evening was 
clear and the moon out, they all trooped back 
inside the boat house to dance. 


CHAPTER XV 


BAD NEWS EOR CAROL 

The summer days sped by. With Jack’s 
coming and Carol’s consequent change of man¬ 
ner, all the difficulties and disappointments that 
had harassed Jeanne since the beginning of her 
house party seemed to disappear. Ruth and 
Carol had now finally reestablished a friendship 
that, with mutual understanding and forgive¬ 
ness as a basis, promised this time to be lasting. 
But the renewal of diplomatic relations be¬ 
tween these two had not broken off the intimacy 
lately sprung up between Ruth and Jeanne and 
Bee. There was not, as there had been earlier 
in the summer, a sharp line separating the two 
pairs of chums. They all four mingled in a 
happy companionship that had been Jeanne’s 
dream since she sent out the invitations. They 
dressed together, giggled together, whispered 
together. Advice was given generously and 

taken as generously. Comments were bandied 

219 


220 


'jeanne s House Party 

about gaily and accepted in the same spirit. 
An atmosphere of helpfulness and sympathy 
and affection prevailed. Song and laughter 
were heard all day long in the white cottage at 
the peak of the horseshoe. 

It didn’t matter, now, whether or not there 
was some activity planned for every day left 
of the boys’ stay. They had a good time doing 
nothing. Ted was about again, on crutches, 
and he hobbled over every morning, established 
himself in the swing with his ukulele and en¬ 
livened the hours of housework. The girls 
came and went, with brooms and dust cloths 
and dish towels. Sometimes they paused for 
a song or a dance on the verandah, sometimes 
they energetically flapped the symbols of their 
duties in the laughing faces of their guests. 
But though the work was interrupted it was 
never neglected and the boys themselves, more 
often than not, assisted in the accomplishment 
of their tasks. 

About ten-thirty the day stretched before 
them to be filled in with pleasure and fun. A 
warm summer haze filled the air. The heat 
made them languid. They sat about on 
Jeanne’s broad verandah—and by this time 


221 


Bad News For Carol 

Vic and the Allen cousins would probably have 
arrived—and talked or sang or sewed. The 
phonograph was played in a desultory fashion. 
Funny stories were read aloud. About eleven- 
thirty they all drifted away to get into their 
bathing suits. 

In the cool water their “ pep ” came back to 
them. The boys dared each other in a series 
of stunts, the most reckless being a high dive 
from the roof of the Staffords’ boat house. It 
was difficult enough to climb up its steep sides 
with nothing to hold to, but to dive from that 
dizzy height was appalling. The girls held 
their breath in fear and admiration as the boys 
climbed like flies up the supporting pillars of 
the verandah, pulled themselves up over the 
sharp edge of the roof and dug fingers and toes 
into bare shingles in their upward ascent. 

Once was enough for all but Steve and Tom, 
but those two seemed to enjoy it and repeated 
the performance with unflagging energy. The 
girls contented themselves with “ nose-dives ” 
from the diving board. Bee had become quite 
daring and was sturdily imitating everything 
the more experienced girls—Carol and Ruth— 
did, but Jeanne’s determined efforts availed her 



222 


yeanne's House Party 

little. She could swim now a short distance in 
a fairly easy manner, but she was disturbed at 
any “ ruff-housing ” in the water, floundered 
and splashed and sank at the mischievous ap¬ 
proach of any of the boys. 

After the swim came one of Katie’s delicious 
lunches. She scolded them and spoiled them 
regularly. There was always a delicious cold 
drink prepared by two of the girls in the morn¬ 
ing, usually hot bread of some kind, thin sliced 
cold meat, a dainty salad and fruit for dessert. 
The supper meal was always simple and as few 
dishes were soiled as possible. 

After lunch the crowd was inclined to break 
up into smaller groups. The boys usually had 
more energy than the girls. Bee was always 
willing to be paddled out on the lake. She 
never seemed to mind the glare and heat. It 
made Carol and Jeanne feel rather ill. They 
kept to the darkened cottage or the shadowed 
woods behind the houses. Ruth never turned 
down an invitation to play tennis no matter 
what the thermometer registered. She and 
Tom usually repaired to the tennis court where 
a few other ones braved the heat with them. 
Bee would go out on the water with Steve or 


Bad News For Carol 223 

Vic, and Jeanne drifted away to the boat house 
with Jack. Sometimes Carol accompanied 
them, sometimes she stayed at home with 
Harry or Ted. It was usually at this time 
that she wrote her letter to her “ adopted 
sister.” 

The news of her undertaking had somehow 
leaked out. She had confided in Ruth and 
had met Ruth’s pleasure and envy with a 
scarcely concealed pride. 

“ Oh, if only I had money enough to do 
something lovely like that! ” was her quick cry. 
“ But why can’t I tell, Carol? The others 
would be so interested!” 

So Carol’s consent was half-heartedly given 
and after that she had to read aloud her enter¬ 
taining letters from her grateful little French 
sister. Her act had farther reaching conse¬ 
quences than she had imagined. Jeanne de¬ 
cided to do the same thing with her allowance 
and the Allen girls, hearing of the scheme, 
adopted a French orphan between them. 

There usually followed a short afternoon 
swim about four-thirty and after that with the 
sinking of the sun and lengthening of cool dark 
shadows came an animation and zest that had 


224 Jeanne s House Party 

been lacking all day. There were lively dis¬ 
putes as to whether an automobile ride, a skim 
over the lake in the Allens’ launch or a stroll 
up to the Glen would be the nicest thing to do. 
Usually, again, the crowd split. Half would 
lazily sink into the cushioned seats of the 
launch or the car and half would take the lovely 
walk through the woods along the path that led 
out to the bluff overlooking the Glen. From 
the end of this path which stopped abruptly 
where shale and slate made a rough descent to 
the black pools and rocky caverns below, a 
glorious view of the whole of Lake Sunnapine 
could be obtained. It was the mecca for lovers 
of a lovely sunset and was Jeanne’s favorite 
haunt. 

The glen below her, echoing mysteriously, 
silent and dark and secretive, fascinated and 
repelled her. She would not have gone there 
alone for worlds but in company she felt its 
spell and responded to its weird beauty with all 
her French temperament. 

“And,” she told Jack, “ when it gets me too 
shivery, I just look up from the black waters 
down there, to the blue lake and the white 
clouds and the lovely sunset over the tops of 


Bad News For Carol 225 

the trees and my heart gets light and dancing 
again.” 

And in the evening—dancing, always danc¬ 
ing. Either at the Point club house or over at 
the big park. It didn’t matter a great deal. 
The park offered ice-cream cones and darkened 
woods where talking might go on uninter¬ 
rupted, and better music and a moonlight sail 
over in the big steamer. They went to the park 
every night that it was open. In between times 
the Point club house was a more than satis¬ 
factory place. 

vjv Vf? VjV Vjv 

It was mid-afternoon of the last week that 
Tom and the twins were to be there. Bee was 
out on the water; Ruth on the tennis court; 
Carol had disappeared in the neighboring 
woods with Ted and his ukulele; Jeanne was in 
the boat house, out on the overhanging veran¬ 
dah with Jack. 

She had just arranged cushions under his 
head as he lay in the hammock with a deft touch 
on which he complimented her, when the sharp 
tinkle of the telephone in the house borne to her 
ears through the still air, brought her to an 
upright position. 


226 Jeanne s House Party 

“ Oh! that’s too bad. Mother has gone to lie 
down—she had a headache—I think I’d better 
run back to the house and answer that so she 
won’t have to come down-stairs. Katie’s 
out.” 

“ All right, don’t be long, Jeanne.” 

“ No longer than possible, Jack,” Jeanne 
said softly. “ I’ll be back to read to you our 
nice story in two jiffs.” 

She sped away to the house, her thoughts on 
Jack. Another long summons of the tele¬ 
phone jerked them from him to the matter at 
hand. She wondered who it could be. No one 
telephoned up here. They were the only cot¬ 
tage on the point to boast a telephone. It must 
be—why, what—who—after all, could it be? 

“ Perhaps it’s a telegram. Tom called back 
to service—or something like that.” 

She met her mother at the foot of the stairs. 
Mrs. Stafford was in a kimono. Jeanne cried 
her contrition to her mother that she hadn’t 
gotten back quickly enough to save her coming 
down-stairs, took down the receiver, then 
turned to her mother. 

“A telegram for you, cherie” she said softly. 

She stood in silence at her mother’s elbow, a 






Bad News For Carol 


227 

sudden premonition of disaster seizing her even 
before she saw horror leap to her mother’s eyes, 
her face pale, and the hand that held the re¬ 
ceiver shake. 

“ Read that again, please,” Mrs. Stafford 
said quietly and at her voice Jeanne’s little 
hands met in a tight clasp. 

Bad news for someone. For whom? The 
twins? Their sister worse? The baby ill, or 
their mother, after her weeks of nursing? Bee? 
She dismissed Bee from her mind. It wasn’t 
for Bee—or Ruth? Mother Stafford her¬ 
self? 

Mrs. Stafford hung up the receiver, looked 
about her quickly, passed a trembling hand 
over her eyes a moment, then said quietly: 

“ Come up-stairs, Jeanne, with me. This is 
frightful.” 

Up in her room she closed the door and then 
spoke to Jeanne in that dreadfully quiet voice 
that was so frightening. 

“ Carol’s mother and father were in an auto* 
mobile accident.” 

“Mother-” Jeanne could not ask the 

question that stuck in her throat. 

“ They were both killed instantly.” 



228 y eatings House Party 

Jeanne was unbelieving—dazed. Then with 
a low cry of pity she burst into tears. At that 
Mrs. Stafford dried her own and took com¬ 
mand of the situation. 

“ Jeanne, you must control yourself. It is 
for you and me to hold Carol steady through 
this. We can’t unless we are steady our¬ 
selves. Dry your tears. There, sweetheart, 
I understand. It’s your very real sympathy 
that makes it so difficult. You know. But 
you must find Carol for me, dear, and bring her 
here at once.” 

Mrs. Stafford’s quiet voice regained for 
Jeanne her badly shaken composure. In a few 
moments she was by the door, white, but self- 
contained, listening to her mother’s last di¬ 
rections. 

“ I shan’t ask you not to tell her. If she 
suspects bad news—and the way opens—I 
leave it to you, dear. You can probably man¬ 
age as well as I.” 

So Jeanne went down-stairs to meet Jack 
who was on a search for her. She told him the 
news in a quiet voice, then went on out to the 
verandah and down the steps to the strip of 
woods between her cottage and the next one* 


Bad News For Carol 229 

She found Carol alone, seated on a broad 
flat mossy rock writing her letter. Carol 
looked up smiling, waved a hand, stopped it in 
mid-air and rose to her feet, her paper flutter¬ 
ing to the ground beside her. 

“ Why, Jeanne—what on earth?—you’re as 
white as a ghost.” 

Jeanne’s smile was shaky. She tried to 
speak, failed utterly and ended by flinging her 
arms about her cousin and holding her tight. 

“ Oh, Carol! ” she whispered. “ Oh, Carol! 
We all love you so! Don’t forget that. We 
all love vou.” 

Carol stood still in Jeanne’s arms until at 
last Jeanne drew away. Then Carol, her 
pretty head high, faced Jeanne bravely. 

“ What’s happened? You’d better tell me 
straight out. I can stand it. I can stand any¬ 
thing better than not knowing. What’s hap¬ 
pened? ” 

So Jeanne told her, as quickly and gently as 
possible, and when she had done, Carol still 
stood with her head high and her eyes brave. 
She drew a long breath and her voice when it 
came was steady. 

“ Thank you. Now we’ll go to Aunt Bee. 



2 3 ° Jeanne s House Party 

I must find out what to do. Thank you, 
Jeanne.” 

She gave the French girl’s clinging arms a 
little squeeze, then walked back with her to the 
cottage. Through the living-room she went, 
without seeing Jack, who rose to speak to her, 
then dropped back before her swift forward 
rush. Jeanne stayed down-stairs with Jack, 
but when the sound of voices had gone on 
steadily for a few moments up-stairs she 
rose. 

“ I guess she’s not going to cry. Sometimes 
you don’t—till later. I think I’ll go up. 
Jack, keep away the others till I find out if she 
wants to see them.” 

Carol was, indeed, wonderful. She wanted 
the truth, all Mrs. Stafford could give her, and 
she took it unflinchingly. Her parents had 
been on a motor trip for the week-end. On 
the way home another car had crashed into 
them in the darkness injuring their chauffeur 
and killing them both almost instantly. 

“ I will pack my things.” She rose. “ What 
train do we take? ” 

“ It leaves in an hour. Carol, dear-” 

“Yes, Auntie? ” 



Bad News For Carol 231 

“ Just take enough for a few days. You will 
come back with me, you know.” 

“ Yes. Thank you, Auntie.” 

Carol seemed to be rather glad the other 
girls and boys weren’t in the house. She put 
her hands in Jack’s when she went down-stairs 
and looked at him with a new grave dignity. 

“ You’re a brave soldier, Carol,” Jack said 
in a husky voice, patting her hand, and across 
Carol’s face slipped a sudden sweet smile. 

Jeanne rode with her mother and Carol to 
the station. On the way Mrs. Stafford was 
busy giving directions for the time she was 
away, and Carol sat quite still in a corner of the 
car, her face turned away. As the limousine 
drew up at the shabby little station she turned 
toward Jeanne, her eyes bright with tears. 

“ I can’t help thinking how much harder this 
same thing must have been for you—in the war 
—all alone-” 

She caught Jeanne’s hand, lifted it suddenly 
to her cheek and then jumped out of the car. 

“ It’s that that helps me be brave—if I am 
brave,” she said. 





CHAPTER XVI 


A WALK IN THE WOODS 

Mrs. Stafford had telephoned to M’amselle 
with whom she had kept in touch since her 
departure from the lake. It developed that 
the Frenchwoman was not busy and would be 
only too glad to hurry to the lake to chaperone 
the house party in Mrs. Stafford’s absence. 
She would arrive that evening after supper. 

So Jeanne drove to the station again that 
day to meet M’amselle. She took Bee with her 
and the two of them gave to the sympathetic 
M’amselle the story of the tragedy that con¬ 
cerned Carol. 

“ She was so brave, M’amselle-” Jeanne 

cried. 

“ You wouldn’t know her for the same per¬ 
son,” Bee said. 

And they went on to tell how she had 
«/ 

adopted for her own the little war orphan in 
France; how kind and thoughtful she had been 

with Ruth most of the summer; how cheerfully 

232 



A IVilk in the IViods 233 

she had learned to do her share of the work 
and how much less silly she was with boys. 

“And she’s stopped her smoking entirely,” 
Jeanne ended. 

M’amselle looked down fondly into the two 
eager faces near hers. Then a soft hand was 
laid on each of theirs and a soft voice spoke 
gentle words of the little girl who had made life 
for her a series of difficulties and heartaches. 

“ I always felt that Carol had splendid 
qualities,” she said, “ and I hoped sometime 
life would bring them out. It seems that you 
dear ones have so succeeded—and now this so 
very hard sorrow—that too will, I believe, in¬ 
crease her strength and sweetness.” 

Back at the cottage M’amselle was intro¬ 
duced to the boys and very soon after that she 
went up to Mrs. Stafford’s room. Her jour¬ 
ney had been long and her departure hurried 
and she was tired. She would change her 
clothes and rest and be down to join them a 
little later. 

The young people remained on the porch 
when she had left them. Carol’s grief had 
shocked them all and they none of them felt like 
doing anything. 



234 Jeanne s House Parly 

It was about half-past eight when someone 
suggested a walk to the store for ice-cream. A 
few seemed willing, others did not. In the 
end they all went strolling down the road ex¬ 
cept Jack and Jeanne, who stayed on the 
porch. 

“ We’ll bring you some, Jeanne,” Bee called 
back. 

“All right. Thank you.” Then Jeanne 
turned to Jack. “ I simply can’t bear it—to 
go among people and talk and pretend nothing 
is the matter when my heart aches so I think 
it may crack, Jack.” 

“ Brings it all back, does it, Jeanne? ” 

Jeanne nodded, then she began talking 
softly. 

“ Most of the time it is a bad dream, some¬ 
thing so bad that it never really happened. It 
doesn’t seem real, when I remember it,—not 
the blowing up of our house, or the hiding in 
cellars, or Grandma’s dying, or anything until 
I got to camp. Then I remember being so 
sick and so tired and I didn’t want to get well. 
Except to thank you. I did want to get well 
enough to thank you for bringing me there and 
promising me a new mother, and being so nice 



A IValk in the IVlods 


235 

to me—but it seemed at times as though I’d 
be too tired to do that. Do you know? ” 

“ Yes, I know.” 

“ But I kept on trying, and finally I did. 
And then after that, life became real again. 
The cold nights in the tents and the busy days 
helping to care for all those enfants, and the 
warm sunlight times when you came and 
laughed with me—do you remember? ” 

“ Indeed I do.” 

“And the ride to the ocean, Jack, do you 
recall? That so very cold day when I had 
given away my new clothes and you made me 
buy other ones with your money so I should not 
freeze-” 

“ What a figure you cut in your overalls and 
new coat! ” 

“But the ride. Ah! Jack. That for me 
was most important, because that day when I 
saw the steamer go out to America a little seed 
was sowed in my mind that took root.” 

“ I never have heard all about your stow¬ 
away trip, Jeanne. There hasn’t been half a 
chance to talk to you since I’ve been here. 
You’ve always been surrounded except for the 
bits of half hours down in the boat house.” 



236 "Jeanne s House Party 

“ I will tell you now. It was very much 
fun—after the seasick departed/’ 

Jack rose. 

“ Come on for a walk then. Everybody’ll 
be piling back in a little while and your story 
will be interrupted.” 

“ All right, but can you see, Jack, to walk 
with comfort? ” 

“ Perhaps you’ll help me a little.” 

So Jeanne tucked her little hand under 
his big arm and with his cane tap-tapping 
along the road, they moved out into the dark¬ 
ness. 

“ Let’s take the back-road,” Jeanne sug¬ 
gested. “ It is used less by automobiles and 
there are not the ruts and bumps for you to 
stumble over.” 

So they turned toward the rear of the cottage 
and soon came out in the country road. There 
was a fragrance in the air back here that was 
lost in the more open, clearer air down by the 
lake, and the companionable noise of frogs and 
crickets was observable. Sounds like that went 
unnoticed in front of the cottages because the 
overtones of voices and music and oarlocks and 
water drowned them out. 


di Walk in the Wlods 237 


“ Cozy back here/’ Jack said. “ Why 
haven’t we done this before? ” 

“ And it’s such a heavenly night, Jack. Can 
you see? Millions and millions and millions of 
bright little stars. It’s better than a moon, I 
think.” 

Jack looked up, then he laughed ruefully. 
“ Your bright little stars look like wind-blown 
candles in a snow-storm to me.” 

“ Dr. Jack-” 

Jeanne gave his arm a little squeeze and he 
said quickly: 

“You were going to tell me about your trip 
home on the big boat.” 

So Jeanne began, and they became so inter¬ 
ested,—she in reliving her life as a stowaway 
for him, and he in having all the details about 
which he had wondered often filled in—that 
they moved on and on entirely unaware of 
direction and time until they found themselves 
on the path that led them to the bluff over¬ 
hanging the glen. 

“Why, for goodness sake!” Jeanne cried. 
“ How did we get here? It must be late, Jack. 
Have you a watch? ” 

“ No, but we’ve come so far, let’s go on to 




238 Jeanne's House Party 

the end of the path, to the place where the 
ground slides down in a heap of slate to the 
Bottomless Pool.” 

“ I’ve always wanted to go there at night,” 
Jeanne said. “Well—if we hurry. But I 
don’t want to distress M’amselle.” 

“ We’ll hurry. The path is smooth.” 

So they pushed on through the still, fragrant 
woods, not talking now, but each of them en¬ 
joying the silence after all. There was, every 
now and then, the cheep of a bird, the startled 
flutter of something in the grass, the rustle of 
bushes and the plop! of water as a frog would 
disappear into a hidden puddle. 

In a few moments the path left the woods 
and they were out in the open again on the 
edge of the bluff. Above them the spangled 
sky hung like a glittering banner. Below 
that the quiet waters of the lake reflected 
the tiny stars in a perfect and marvellous 
way. It was hard, as Jeanne told Jack, to 
tell just exactly where sky ended and water 
began. 

Then she dropped her eyes to the Glen below 
her and shuddered. 

“ Oh, I don’t know why this place gives me 


A Walk in the Woods 239 

the shivers, but it does. The pools are blacker 
than ever at night, Jack, and the water drip¬ 
ping from those walls—hark! Hear it?— 
makes it all seem so cold and lonely. Perhaps 
it’s because I am reminded of France—and the 
wet cellar where Grandma and I hid for days— 
and the black pools are like the darkness into 
which I peeped—ugh! ” 

She turned sharply. 

“ Let’s go home.” 

But Jack, only half seeing her in the dark¬ 
ness, misunderstood her motion and in turning 
to face about with her he bumped into her. She 
lost her balance, staggered back a few steps, 
struck her ankle against a protruding rock and 
with a half gasped shriek, she fell over the edge 
of the cliff. 

“ Jeanne! ” 

Jack’s hands came blindly out. He leaped 
forward, tore the glasses from his face, felt 
with his foot for the edge of the cliff and then 
flung himself flat hanging half off the edge, 
straining his eyes to see, his ears to hear the 
dreaded splash as Jeanne went into the black 
waters below. 

He heard stones rattling and clattering, the 



240 Jeanne's House Parly 

sound of Jeanne’s body sliding among the 
sharp pieces of slate that were borne down with 
her, the scattered splashing of the smaller 
loosened rocks that must have preceded her 
to the bottomless pool, more slidings, more 
splashings, tinier rattling of pebbles, tinier 
splashings,—then silence. 

“ Jeanne! ” 

His voice was a hoarse agonized groan. His 
eyes, trying desperately to pierce the darkness 
below him, ached furiously. In his utter help¬ 
lessness to see, or to make anyone hear if he 
shouted, or to leave to get help without know¬ 
ing what had become of Jeanne, he began to 
swear. 

Then he put on his glasses and began to 
think. 

Jeanne had not rolled into the pool. He 
was quite sure of that. She would have made 
a bigger sound,—a different splash as her body 
struck. He was quite positive, as he raked 
his memory to recall exactly the echo of sounds 
that had come to his ears, that none of them 
could have been Jeanne going into the water. 

She was then, somewhere between him and 
the bottom, unconscious, hurt probably,— how 


A Walk in the Woods 241 

badly he did not know though his imagination 
conjured up the worst visions—and in danger 
every second of sliding on down into the pool 
she so dreaded. 

44 Jeanne! ” he called again. 

But not a sound came up to him. 

He must, therefore, in his blindness, let him¬ 
self down over the cliff, working his way or 
falling to the bottom, searching with out¬ 
stretched hands and aching eyes—hang these 
eyes!—for Jeanne as he went, and there was 
always the danger that he might start an 
avalanche of stone and rocks down on her 
bruised body or head; that he himself might 
loosen the very rocks that were holding her and 
so send her himself down into the pool. 

It was horrible. Anything he did might be 
worse than doing nothing. But he could not 
do nothing. In less time than it takes to read 
he had twisted himself about and begun his 
downward crawl to find Jeanne. 

It was slow work. He had to feel in a wide 
circle, every inch of the way. Sometimes he 
slid eight or ten feet at a stretch. That meant 
a difficult upward pull again to reach out on 
both sides and be sure he had not missed Jearme 



242 ‘Jeanne’s House Party 

on the way. It was desperate, heart-breaking 
business, and the sweat was standing out on 
Jack’s forehead when all of a sudden his foot 
touched something soft. 

With a cry he let himself down to the 
scrubby little bushes where Jeanne’s skirt had 
caught and held her in safety. Then he lifted 
her up in his arms. She was still unconscious 
and something warm and sticky that trickled 
from her face to his swift searching hands told 
him she had been cut. 

He wiped her eyes and face with her own 
small handkerchief, then he bound his about 
the place where it seemed to be bleeding most. 
That done, he sat still in another quandary. 

It would be next to impossible to climb up 
to the top again with Jeanne a dead weight in 
his arms. Yet to go down was equally im¬ 
possible for him in his blindness. He would 
not be able to discover the narrow little path 
about the edge of the water that he had seen 
one of the boys skirt the day they had walked 
down before the Beach party. He would 
probably end by stumbling into the pool. 

As he sat there, Jeanne stirred in his arms, 
and then spoke. 


2 43 


A IValk in the IVlods 

44 Jack! Where—what- 5 ’ 

“ You’re all right, Jeanne. I have you. 
Don’t move till you feel quite clear in your 
head. Then we’ll dig out of here together.” 

For a moment she was silent, looking up into 
the face that was bending anxiously over hers. 

“Are you hurt? ” Jack suddenly asked. 
“Anywhere but your head? ” 

Jeanne laughed at that. 

“ You boys! ” she said softly. 44 Once when 
Steve rescued me from under a fallen tree in 
a thunderstorm, he forgot to ask me that till we 
were nearly home. No, I am really vairy, 
vairy comfortable.” 

44 Well, maybe you are, young lady, but I 
know I’ll be a lot more comfortable in my 
mind when I get you to earth again. The 
question I was trying to decide, when you 
woke up and rudely interrupted me, was—shall 
we go back up or down? ” 

Jeanne shivered. 

44 Not down, Jack. Not down. We can 
climb up again, I feel sure. I am quite 
O. K. now. See! ” She sat up straight and 
stretched out a hand before him. 44 It does not 
shake a bit. I have splendid—what you call— 




244 "Jeanne's House Party 

nerve. Come! ” She began crawling up the 
embankment again. “ M’amselle will be in a 
fearful fright, and our ice-cream will be all 
melted.” 

It was like Jeanne, on that difficult upward 
climb, to laugh and joke over the accident. It 
was like her, when, safely at the top and a fit 
of dizziness and nausea overcame her for a 
moment, to say briefly: 

“ Wait a minute. Jack. The bandage has 
slipped over my eye.” 

And Jack, kneeling by her side while she sat 
on the grass, did not guess, as he adjusted the 
bandage, that she was fighting off faintness 
with all the grit she possessed. 

The walk home took quite a while, for 
Jeanne’s bandage kept slipping. She kept her 
hand on Jack’s arm but it is a question as to 
which of them was helping the other. By the 
time the path through the woods merged into 
the back-road some of the other people were out 
hunting for them. Jeanne, hearing their calls, 
hallowed back, then began to laugh shakily, 
and by the time big Tom and Ruth had run 
up to meet them, she had slipped in a quiet 
heap at Jack’s feet. 


A IVAk in the IV)ods 245 

“ She’s hurt. I guess I didn’t realize how 
badly,” Jack said, stooping over her. But 
Tom was ahead of him. He picked Jeanne up 
and strode down the road with her without a 
look or a word to anyone. Ruth and Jack were 
left behind and on their way Jack told what 
had happened. 

Tom walked as though he were carrying 
nothing, and Jeanne, regaining consciousness 
on the way to the cottage, began to laugh 
softly. 

“ Don’t put me in the bottom of the ship! 
And don’t let the Captain see me! ” she 
whispered. 

Tom stopped abruptly and looked down. 

“ Thank heaven! ” 

Then he went on, paying no attention to her 
assurances that she was perfectly all right and 
entirely able to walk and she felt silly being 
carried around like an infant. Wouldn’t he 
please—please—please ? 

He bore her into the cottage and deposited 
her on the couch before an alarmed M’am- 
selle. Jeanne sat up indignantly and glared 
at him out of one eye from under a gory band¬ 
age. 



246 ^Jeanne's House Party 

“ To scare poor M’amselle so! It is shame¬ 
ful ! ” she cried. “ I must be a sight! ” 

The others came running in. Jeanne was 
rushed despite her protestations. M’amselle 
led her away to her room where she was bathed 
and bandaged afresh. The cut proved not to 
be serious although quite deep and bleeding 
profusely. Jeanne was bruised and cut about 
her shoulders too, but there were no strains or 
broken bones. 

She lay at last very quietly in her bed with 
the light darkened by the considerate Bee who 
moved about the room undressing with as little 
noise as possible. Voices came up to them in 
subdued accents from the porch but at last they 
ceased. Footsteps sounded moving about the 
house. Soft good-nights were called and soon 
after Bee had turned off her light the cottage 
was in quiet. Still Jeanne lay with wide eyes 
staring into the darkness. She began to shake 
in her bed and was just gulping back a 
frightened sob when Bee slipped out of her 
bed, crept in next to Jeanne and took her in her 
arms, holding her tightly and with one hand 
lightly touching her eyelids. 

Neither of the girls said a word but Jeanne’s 


A Walk in the Woods 247 

hysterical shudders lessened gradually and at 
last she turned quietly toward Bee, laid a soft 
hand on her face and kissed her. 

“ I am O. K. now, dear. Isn’t it queer how 
much worse things are before and after they 
happen than when they really are happening? 
Go back to bed now, cherie . You are my best 
friend.” 


CHAPTER XVII 


JACK TURNS PROPHET 

There came times during the summer when 
the wind blew fresh and strong from the north 
and whipped the placid lake into a tempestuous 
sea. On those days the gray waves rolled up 
on the little strip of beach like the ocean, some¬ 
times dashing themselves with such fury on the 
shore as to reach and spread way up over the 
roadway. On days like those, everyone who 
. owned a boat hurried to their boat house to be 
sure that the boats were strongly fastened and 
were not likely to be pitched about and smashed 
against the docks. And on those days the boys 
at Jeanne’s house party were to be seen out in 
warm sweaters vigorously chopping wood. 

It was too windy to go out on the lake in 
any sort of boat, and too cold for swimming. 
And as the young people liked something more 
strenuous than walking, Mrs. Stafford had 
often suggested the woodpile. There was al¬ 
ways a pile of long trees stacked at the back 

248 


'Jack Turns Prophet 249 

of the house for just such times as these and 
Mother Stafford wisely killed two birds with 
one stone—she kept the young people busy and 
got her wood in shape for the next season. 

Even the girls helped. There was a cross¬ 
cut saw and two axes and a small hatchet for 
trimming. Whoever wasn’t engaged in the ac¬ 
tual business of chopping the wood, would 
trundle it in a wheelbarrow to the big storage 
space under the front porch and there stack it 
in neat piles. 

There was another reason for all this activity 
beside the two already mentioned. A strong 
blow from the north usually brought with it 
gray, tumbling clouds, and fine spitting rain. 
A fire must always be kept burning in the great 
red brick fireplace of the living-room for cheer 
as well as comfort, and the kitchen stove was 
lighted up and kept burning to further warm 
the house. For during a northeaster the wind 
found every crack and crevice and it was es- 
sential to have a plentiful wood supply. 

One such storm blew up during Carol’s ab¬ 
sence. The first day the boys and girls man¬ 
aged to stay outdoors. The rain was persistent 
but like a fine mist, and so long as they were 



250 Jeanne s House Party 

huddled in sweater and thick boots, they could 
keep comfortable. But by the time dusk fell 
and the woodpile under the house had reached 
a reassuring height, it was pouring in torrents. 
The girls scurried for shelter, hung their wet 
things before the warm stove in the kitchen and 
thanked their stars it was up to the boys to get 
the spring water. 

“ My, it is cold! ” Jeanne cried as she en¬ 
tered the living-room and laid a cold hand 
against M’amselle’s face as she sat at the desk 
writing. M’amselle laid her arm and hand 
against Jeanne’s and then moved it to her lips 
and pressed a kiss against it. She and Jeanne 
were very fond of each other. 

“ I guess I’ll lay the fire and set it going,” 
Bee said; “ the boys will be tired.” 

“ It’ll be like grease on that path through 
the woods,” Ruth said. “ I never saw such 
sticky, slippery mud as this is in Vermont.” 

Bee moved the screen away from the fire¬ 
place and went to her chosen task. She made 
a pretty picture in her red sweater with her 
short black hair blown about rosy cheeks. She 
busily stuffed paper in, then laid small sticks 
crosswise, longer sticks over that and a big log 


'jack "Turns Prophet 251 

on top of the whole. Then she put a match to 
the pile and as it blazed up she stood erect with 
a sigh of satisfaction. 

Just then the boys trooped in. 

“If the road to success is as easy as that 
path is to slide on, we’d all of us get there! ” 
Jack observed. 

“ Christopher Columbus! It is the prover¬ 
bial hog’s back—well oiled,” Steve said, hold¬ 
ing out fingers to the bright blaze. 

“We spilled at least half the water,” Harry 
announced cheerfully. 

“ But we’ve enough in our shoes to make up 
for a scanty supply,” Tom added. “ Bet I 
know who built this fire.” 

“ Guess,” Bee said promptly. 

“ Who other than the Busy Bee,” smiled 
Tom. “ Doesn’t she always improve each shin¬ 
ing minute? ” 

“ I didn’t know about improving shining 
minutes, but I think I can improve my shining 
nose,” Bee announced. “ Supper most ready, 
Katie? ” she called from the stairs. “ We’re 
all afther shtarvin’ to death.” 

“ Oh, let’s have it here in front of the fire! ” 
Jeanne cried suddenly, clapping her hands. 


252 Jeanne's House Party 

“ Picnic style. On the floor. It’ll be so 
warm.” 

“ Oh, say! Have a heart! ” Ruth groaned. 
“ I’ve never chopped wood before in my life 
and I feel strangely desirous of sitting on a 
comfortable chair.” 

“ Why not roll the table in? ” Jack observed. 
“ It’ll get through the double doors all 
right-” 

“And it’s set-” M’amselle added quietly. 

No sooner said than done. The boys leaped 
to push back against the wall the living-room 
furniture and make room for the big dining 
table. Then they pulled and pushed it into 
the living-room before the roaring fire. Plates 
rattled and cups danced and Tom made him¬ 
self ridiculous by prancing about, squealing in 
a falsetto voice in a pretended agony of terror 
lest everything be broken. Finally, however, 
the table and its contents came to a standstill 
without any serious damage being done, and 
the boys and girls hurried away to clean up 
before the meal proper should appear. 

Katie had planned the most popular menu 
for a cold night. A creamed macaroni dish 
seasoned with tomatoes and cheese and crisped 




Jack Turns Prophet 253 

over the top with brown bread crumbs, and hot 
chocolate with corn bread. For dessert an apple 
tapioca pudding with hard sauce. Only four 
articles but they were all filling. All hot and 
all guaranteed to satisfy the appetites of the 
hungry workers. 

When the meal was finally finished, the table 
looked a wreck. Not a crumb could be found 
to feed even a bird. And the boys and girls 
were too content to move from their chairs. 
They sat about talking idly for almost an hour 
while Katie patiently trotted to and from the 
kitchen cleaning away the debris. 

Then someone suggested cards. 

They started the wild and childish game of 
“ Slap Jack.” This served to wake them all 
up, and following that came a lively half hour 
with “ Up, Jenkins ! 99 Then they voted for a 
little music, so the boys pushed the table back 
again into the dining-room while the girls 
swept the crumbs into the fireplace. Then the 
fire was replenished and the crowd settled it¬ 
self in comfortable positions while Ruth went 
to the piano. Jack strummed lightly on a 
mandolin and led the singing but as none of 
them were really gifted with melodious voices 


254 Jeanne's House Party 

except him, they one by one fell silent and 
listened in pleasure to his sweet tenor. 

Finally Ruth left the piano and as she did 
so she switched out the last electric light and 
curled up on the broad couch with the two 
other girls. Tom was stretched out in a big 
easy chair. Harry and Steve sprawled flat on 
the floor in the full blaze of the firelight 
and Jack sat withdrawn a little in the shad¬ 
ows. 

He sang until his voice and his repertoire 
gave out, then he laid the mandolin down and 
a little silence fell on the group. 

They were all of them thinking of Carol. 
It had not seemed quite right that they should 
all be having this wonderful time when Carol 
was going through deep waters. But Jeanne 
had decided with Bee that it was best for them 
to get back into a normal, happy atmosphere 
as soon as possible. It would be easier to swing 
Carol into it on her return, and might be the 
kindest way of helping her through a difficult 
time. So she had been the one to lead them 
back to light-hearted gaiety in the days that fol¬ 
lowed after her tumble over the cliff and 
though her heart had often ached for her friend 


Jack 'Turns Prophet 255 

while she appeared to be the most forgetful, 
there was not one of her guests who misun¬ 
derstood, or who failed to help her in her un¬ 
dertaking. It was Jack now, who broke the 
little silence that seemed to settle like a cloud 
over their hilarity. He leaned out of the dark¬ 
ness and handed a penny to Jeanne for her 
thoughts. 

“ I was thinking of what you said, Jack, as 
you came in from the spring. ‘ If the road to 
success is easy ’—and I was wondering just 
what roads we’d each taken and how far we’d 
get on them.” 

“ An interesting speculation,” Jack said. 

“ Don’t you wish we could see down the 
roads? ” Bee began eagerly but Steve stopped 
her. 

“ Suppose Carol had seen? Or Jeanne? 
Or Jack? ” 

“ Going it blind is bad enough-” Harry 

agreed, then stopped suddenly, thinking of 
Jack’s eyes. 

“ Supposing,” Jack said quickly, with that 
easy light touch of his that never failed him in 
moments of embarrassment for others—“ sup¬ 
posing I turn prophet for the rest of the even- 



256 “Jeanne s House Party 

ing and look into the future and tell you what 

I see.” 

“ Oh, can you? ” Ruth cried. “ How? ” 

“ Assuredly,” Jack said gravely, “1 can do 
it by cards or palms. Which do you prefer? ” 

They chose palms as being the most interest¬ 
ing and Jeanne laid her slim white one first in 
Jack’s outstretched hand. He bent with it 
toward the light of the fire and began in all 
solemnity. 

“ This is the hand of an adventurer in life. 
High seas, lonely trails, foreign tribes, sick¬ 
ness, danger—nothing frightens her. If she 
has a goal in sight she presses sturdily on, over¬ 
coming with an indomitable spirit all ob¬ 
stacles -” 

“ That’s my past,” Jeanne slyly observed. 
“ Tell me something I don’t know.” 

“ Hush,” Jack reproved. “ Your past has 
to come before your present, and long before 
your future.” 

He paused and scrutinized the hand that lay 
in his, turning it this way and that, opening 
the fingers and measuring the thumb, gravely. 

“ I foresee more travelling, more friends, 
more trouble. There is no special talent for 



“Jack "Turns Prophet 257 

anything, no gift for anything—but friend¬ 
ship. But that, my child, you have in rich 
abundance. Treasure it. Use it. It is your 
house of gold.” 

Jeanne withdrew her hand as he finished. 

“ Your price? ” 

Jack leaned forward suddenly. 

“ A kiss.” 

Jeanne regarded him disdainfully. 

“ It wasn’t worth it. See if you have better 
luck with someone else! ” And she jumped 
lightly to her feet and let Bee take her place. 

“Ah! The Busy Bee!” Jack took her 
hard, brown little hand and examined it with 
interest. 

“ Capability — fearlessness — the will and 
courage to fight. I see them all in this little 
hand. A keen interest in life. A warm loyal 
heart-” 

“ That’s Bee. Not Bee’s future-” 

Jeanne broke in. “ Jack, you have no imagi¬ 
nation.” 

Jack peremptorily ordered her to silence. 

“Hist! Wait! List! My imagination is 
just getting warmed up.” He bent over Bee’s 
hand, closed his eyes and droned out: 




258 yeanne's House Party 

“ This girl will travel to foreign lands. She 
will disguise herself as a Spanish princess and 
will marry the Duke of Afghanistan. She 
will then discover that America, the Gem of the 
Ocean, is the best little old place after all and 
she’ll come home and settle down to the busi¬ 
ness of lassoing American men for work on her 
ranch.” 

“ That’s better,” Bee smile 

“ My price has been quoted,” Jack said with 
dignity. 

Bee leaned forward and touched her broth¬ 
er’s lips lightly. 

“ The bee always has to gather honey,” she 
murmured. 

“ Hey! ” Harry rolled over and sat up sud¬ 
denly. “I say! Let’s take turns playing 
Prophet. No fair.” 

“ I agree with you,” Tom said, “ but it’s my 
turn. Superiority of age,” he explained coolly 
to an indignant Harry and he quietly shoved 
Jack back in the corner, took his place and 
beckoned to Ruth. 

With the color coming richly up in her face, 
Ruth left the couch and sat down on the floor 
near Tom, putting her hand out to his. 


‘Jack Turns Prophet 259 

“ A soft, warm, friendly hand. A beautiful 
hand. A hand that can evoke rapture by its 
skillful touch on the piano. A hand that can 
evoke oceans of praise by its deftness at the 
skillet. A hand meant for-” 

“—apparently for holding,” Harry observed 
grumpily. 

“ Exactly,” Tom agreed. 

“ But evidently,” Ruth said quietly, “ not a 
hand that reveals much of my future.” She 
started to withdraw it. 

“ Ah, yes.” Tom clutched it again. “ Wait. 
The future is all in the fingers. Your palm 
holds your past. Your fingers grope and 
stretch for things out of reach.” He nudged 
Jack and said aside, 44 That’s a good line, Jack. 
You want to remember that. Good line.” 

Then he went on. 

“ These fingers are reaching surely and 
strongly for fine and beautiful things, and 
these fingers will get them. Fine friendships, 
a broad education in music, a trip abroad-” 

Ruth gasped. 

“ Like that, eh? ” Tom asked. “ Well, all 
right. Wait a minute. I’ll think up another 
just as good.” 




260 'Jeanne's House Party 

“ Now you’ve spoiled it,” Ruth cried. “ I 
was almost believing you.” She sighed and 
held her hand out before her. “ If they could 
only get all they wanted-” 

Tom leaned forward, a provocative light in 
his eyes. 

“ What do they want to get right now? ” he 
asked. (“Watch me, Hany. This is how 
you do it. Easy money. See’em fall.”) 

“ Just this.” 

Ruth suddenly thrust her fingers in his red 
hair so close to hers and gave his head a vigor¬ 
ous yank. The surprise of it left him speech¬ 
less for a moment while Hany rolled about in 
mirth. 

“Easy money! Watch me! The girls all 
get in line to kiss me,” he quoted. His jeering 
triumph gave Tom an excuse to vent his feel¬ 
ings. He pounced on Harry and punched him 
property. There ensued a vigorous wrestling 
match which only ended when Harry rolled so 
close to the fire that his coat touched the warm 
ashes and Steve smashed his hand down on the 
glowing sparks that were burning a little 
hole. 

“ Come, children. Come. Enough of this 



Jack Turns Prophet 261 

nonsense,” he growled. “ It’s past eleven and 
I’m for going to bed.” 

“ Boo! I hate to leave this fire for a cold 
room up-stairs,” Jeanne sighed as she rose and 
stood still in its warm circle. 

“ That’s where we boys have one on you. 
We can undress by the fire. Sleep here if we 
want.” 

“ That’s a good idea. You can take turns 
keeping it replenished all night,” Ruth said. 
“ Excellent. I make that a motion and sec¬ 
ond it.” 

“ I’m going to make another motion,” Tom 
said deliberately, his eyes on Ruth, and with 
the words he stepped forward, put an arm about 
her and kissed her full on the mouth. The sur¬ 
prise of it held Ruth still a minute and before 
anyone could see the sudden glad light that 
sprang to her eyes, Jack said quickly: 

“ I second that motion, Tom.” 

And he stepped up to Jeanne and claimed 
the full price of his fortune telling. 

With a wink at each other, Harry and Steve 
moved each to a side of M’amselle, bent for¬ 
ward and left a warm kiss on each cheek. She 
flung an arm about each and drew their faces 


262 ^Jeanne's House Party 

down to her and gave them each a resounding 
kiss in return. 

“Ah! I tell you the French people know 
how. You girls ought to take lessons,” Harry 
cried with satisfaction. 

“ It is not that we do not know how,” Jeanne 
said gently, “ but it is simply that we know the 
American boys value what they do not get at 
the first time.” 


CHAPTER XVIII 


PLANS FOR THE FUTURE 

Before Carol and Mrs. Stafford returned 
Jeanne was able to remove her head bandage. 
She wore her hair low over the healing wound 
and bound it in place with a broad ribbon so that 
her mother should not see it at once and be¬ 
come alarmed when she and Ruth and Bee 
went down to the station to meet the train. 

Carol, who had always appeared like a bright 
bird among them in her lovely clothes, was 
dressed in black. It seemed to make a great 
change and Bee and Ruth hung back in con¬ 
scious shyness as they saw her moving toward 
them, but when Jeanne brought her back to the 
car and she stretched out a hand silently to 
them, her lovely eyes brimming with tears,, they 
forgot the strangeness of her and gave her their 
love and sympathy in a warm rush. 

“ It’s good to see you again, Carol.” 

“ k We’ve missed you.” 

263 


264 Jeanne's House Party 

“ It’s wonderful,” Carol said smiling 
bravely, “ to have you people to come back 
to.” 

She had dreaded meeting them all, but with 
the girls staying close by her she found it not 
so difficult after all. Steve and Harry were 
both dumb. They simply wrung her hand and 
turned away abruptly. Tom let his blue eyes 
speak for him while his lips made ordinary con¬ 
versation. Jack was the only one who men¬ 
tioned her sorrow and he waited for a moment 
before supper when the others had not yet ap¬ 
peared. Carol, who had no other black dress 
to change into, came down-stairs first and went 
out on the porch. Soon she heard the tap-tap 
of Jack’s cane, then he came and stood beside 
her. 

“ I just wanted to say, Carol, that it does a 
fellow good to see a girl like you, who isn’t used 
to hard knocks, rise to meet them as bravely 
as you have. I’m proud to know you, Carol.” 
He put out a hand gravely. 

A flush spread over Carol’s face. She put 
her hand in his quietly without looking at him. 
Then she said: 

“ It was all because of you, Jack. You and 


Plans For the Future 265 

Jeanne. You expected me to. I felt that. 
No one else ever expected anything big or 
brave of me. They always expected—just the 

opposite-” Her voice broke. Then she 

looked up and smiled quickly as she ended: 

" I am happy to know you.” 

It was inevitable that after supper they 
should sit quietly on the porch and begin to 
talk about the fall that lay ahead of them. 
The summer was practically over. In two 
days Tom Kelly returned. In three the twins 
and Ruth would take their departure. The 
Allens and Vic and Ted were gloomily lament¬ 
ing the fact that they had just one week left. 

“ What about you people, Jeanne? How 
long are you going to stay up here? ” Ted 
asked. 

Jeanne shrugged. 

“ I have been so busy living through this 
summer that I have not once thought of the end 
of it. What do we do, cherie? " she called 
softly to her mother who was conversing in low 
tones with M’amselle. 

At her question Mrs. Stafford rose and came 
over to join the young people. She stood, de¬ 
spite Jack’s urging, behind his chair, a hand on 



266 yeanne s House Party 

his shoulder to keep him in his seat, and she 
smiled about on the boys and girls who had 
grown so dear to her this summer. 

“ It is horrid to talk of leaving when we have 
all of us so recently learned how to get on 
together.” 

Brave Mrs. Stafford. No one but she 
would have dared refer so delicately to the 
difficulties of adjustment that the weeks had 
brought to each of them. But she was sure of 
her moment and sure of her girls and she made 
no mistake. They smiled comprehendingly at 
her or each other and she went on: 

“ I have been looking forward to this 
moment all summer because I knew when it 
came the time for saying good-bye was going 
to be hard for all of us. One hates to let go a 
good time. One hates to bid farewell to 
friends.” 

“ Second the motion,” Tom grumbled softly 
and they all laughed. 

“ I’m sorry, Tom, I didn’t work out as 
happy a scheme for you boys as I finally suc¬ 
ceeded in doing for the girls, but if you will be 
boys-” 

“Mother Stafford!” Jeanne rose to her 



Plans For the Future 267 

feet and moved over to confront her adopted 
parent. “ What is it? What under the sun 
are you leading up to say? ” 

Mrs. Stafford’s eyes twinkled. 

“ I have consulted Jack, regarding Bee’s 
future. I have made a flying trip to Ruth’s 
mother. I have telegraphed and telephoned 
for endless hours and innumerable times and 
the end of the whole business is-” 

By this time the girls were all on their feet, 
clustering about Mrs. Stafford in a flutter of 
excitement. All but Carol who stood quietly, 
her face shining. Mrs. Stafford looked down 
at her. 

“ Shall we tell them? ” 

Carol nodded. 

“ Of course they may not like it,” Aunt Bee 
suggested, postponing the revelation mischie¬ 
vously. 

“ One second more and I’ll choke you, Aunt 
Bee! ” Bee cried. 

“ Help! ” Mrs. Stafford suddenly ducked 
in a most undignified way and ran from the 
porch into the cottage. Before anyone could 
catch her she had disappeared and Carol 
was left to break the news. She was more 



268 "Jeanne's House Party 

excited than anyone had ever seen her, and 
sat clasping and unclasping her hands as she 
talked. 

“ Well,” she began, “ I do hope you’ll all 
like the idea. Because it’s really mine. Of 
course if you don’t, you simply have to say so, 
and nobody need go.” 

“ Go!” 

“ Where? ” 

“Hurry, Carol! This suspense is killing 
me! ” 

“ You see, I presented a problem at once. 
Of course Aunt Bee is my guardian and my 
home is with her, but I couldn’t very well keep 
on going to the private school I’ve always gone 
to in Chicago, and yet live with Aunt Bee in 
New York. So I suggested—I always 
hated my old school anyhow—that Aunt Bee 
find a boarding-school near New York and let 
Jeanne go there with me this winter.” 

Jeanne drew an ecstatic breath. 

“ Fun! ” she murmured. 

“ Then when we got that much decided we 
didn’t see why Ruth and Bee shouldn’t come 
along too! ” 

Sharp exclamations from the other two girls. 


Plans For the Future 269 

Bee turned inquiringly to Jack who nodded 
silently and Ruth sat like a statue, her great 
eyes glowing in her face like two lamps. 

“ And we discovered that Ruth hated her old 
High School as much as I had hated mine,” 
Carol went on. “ And we also discovered that 
Jack and his mother and father were wonder¬ 
ing how, when and where Bee was to continue 
her education as the little old schoolhouse 
burned to the ground this summer, Bee, and 
your teacher has gone home to California 
again.” 

“ You never told me,” Bee said accusingly 
to Jack. 

“ Forgive me, sis. They wouldn’t let 
me. They wanted to spring this surprise 
stunt.” 

“ So” Carol concluded with a mighty sigh 
and an expansive grin, “ we got it all fixed up 
for every body to go with me to boarding- 
school at Doane’s Landing next winter.” 

“Carol! You’re a genius!” Jeanne cried. 

Ruth remained silent, but she stretched out 
a hand and gave Carol’s a big squeeze, and 
Carol, with that new discernment that had 
come to her, understood and gave back a 


2 7 ° Jeanne s House Party 

friendly pressure of comprehension. In a way 
this plan for the winter was to mean more to 
Ruth than anyone. 

Bee, too, was silent, bewildered and not a 
little upset at the news that she was not to go 
back to Montana to her parents until the fol¬ 
lowing June. In the hubbub of questions 
that Ruth and Jeanne flung at Carol, Jack’s 
quiet aside to Bee was unheard. 

“ Stiffen up, girlie. It’s what Dad and 
Mother have wanted for you. Aunt Bee is 
making it possible, of course, and Carol is 
financing Ruth. It’ll do you all good to get 
away to school together and you know I shall 
be flitting about the countiy. I’m not going 
to take root in Montana again. I shall prob¬ 
ably be in or near New York through most of 
the winter.” 

“ I hadn’t thought of that, Jack.” 

“ And next summer, if you like, the whole 
quartette may strike the trail for the shanty 
out West. How about it, Bee? That’s not a 
bad idea. Spring it on ’em.” 

So Bee turned at last just as Carol was be¬ 
ginning to get anxious about her enthusiasm 
and spoke with eagerness. 


Plans For the Future 271 

“ All right, Carol. You’ve sprung a good 
idea, but you’ve only sprung half of it.” 

“ What did I leave out? ” Carol demanded. 

“ A trip to Montana after Commencement 
in June and a house party out there all sum¬ 
mer. You’re all invited.” Bee warmed to 
her subject and flung an arm inclusively at the 
company. “I’ll take you duck hunting in a 
canvas boat. I’ll take you riding for miles up 
mountains where your horses will climb like 
goats and over streams they will have to swim 
while you fold your feet around the horses’ 
necks to keep them dry.” 

“ The necks or the feet? ” Tom inquired. 

Bee hushed him with a glance. 

“ I’ll take you to a country dance. Every¬ 
one goes. Families, including babies and 
grandparents. The babies and grandparents 
go to bed up-stairs on the floor and the young 
people move all the furniture out from down¬ 
stairs—including the stove ” 

“ Bee! What are you giving us? ” 

“ The truth. And you’ll have to wash at a 
pump outdoors-” 

“ We’re coming, Bee! ” Jeanne cried. “ It 
all sounds too adventuresome for anything.” 




2ji "Jeanne s House Party 

“ Think of it,” Ruth said in her dignified 
way. “ A year at boarding-school. And a 
trip out West at the end of it. Why, I never 
dreamed anything like that could happen to 
me.” 

Just then Mrs. Stafford came out. 

“ Well—what do you think of the scheme? ” 
she asked. 

The girls all rushed at her. All but Ruth 
who sat still, detained by Tom’s voice. 

44 In your meanderings don’t forget— 

“ I’m your he 
You’re my she-” 

She turned on him swiftly. 

“ As if I’d ever forget that, Tom Kelly. As 
if I’d ever forget that.” 



CHAPTER XIX 


A FAREWELL PARTY 

There must be,—the decision was unan¬ 
imous,—a farewell party. But when it 
came to deciding just what sort of a party it 
was to be there was, of course, dissension. The 
twins wanted another day for sailing but it was 
pointed out that one could never rely on the 
weather and there was just one day left for 
them to revel in, so that project was dropped. 
The Allen girls thoughtlessly suggested 
another picnic at Glen Lake but Ted and Vic 
vetoed that idea with prompt efficacy. A 
dance at the Park didn’t seem like enough of a 
celebration because they had gone there so 
much. 

“ The trouble is we’ve done everything,” 
Jeanne sighed to her mother when they were 
alone together. “ There’s nothing new left.” 

“ Did it ever occur to you, Jeanne, that you 
have had a party everywhere except in our 
own cottage? ” 


273 


274 


"Jeanne s House Parly 

“ Why, no. It never did.” 

“ Why don’t you suggest a Stunt Party? 
Invite the whole Point, young and old, and 
have each one come prepared to suggest a game 
or do a stunt of their own. You could, in that 
way, have a very varied program, I should 
think.” 

Jeanne considered this with growing en¬ 
thusiasm. 

“A costume party!” she finally cried. 
“ For the young people, anyway! ” 

It was suggested to the others, who fell 
in with the plan at once, and a babble of 
excitement arose over the problem of cos¬ 
tumes. 

“ A costume is enough to puzzle over,” Tom 
groaned, “ but a stunt, too, is almost too much 
for me.” 

The news was broadcast in short order, and 
the girls immediately got busy on preparations. 
They decided the cottage should be trimmed, so 
a committee was appointed, consisting of Tom, 
Carol and Bee, to decorate the house and porch. 
Ruth and Jeanne and the twins were to help 
Katie with refreshments. 

Jack was named Master of Ceremonies to 


A Farewell Party 275 

work out an Order of Proceedings and keep 
things going. 

The invitations were given out in the morn¬ 
ing and by night costumes, house, refreshments 
and program were to be ready. It meant 
lively work. 

The twins were set to making ice-cream. 
They borrowed freezers from their neighbors, 
carted ice from the ice house themselves on 
wheelbarrows and stuck faithfully to their 
jobs all the morning. Once Jeanne dared to 
remark that thev seemed to feel the need to do 
a good deal of tasting. And Ruth added that 
probably they’d be through quicker if they 
didn’t take the covers off so much. At which 
insulting suggestions the boys departed in high 
dudgeon and the girls had to run after them 
and on bended knees made due apologies. 

Katie was making cookies and cakes and 
Ruth helped her. Jeanne and Mrs. Stafford 
were busy cleaning up the cottage and getting 
the regular meals for their large family. All 
four of them washed up dishes. 

“ A punch too? ” Jeanne asked. 

“ It’s a good deal of work, dear, but if you 
want it we can fix up an easy one; ginger ale 


2 76 Jeanne s House Party 

and lemonade together are delicious. But I 
don’t really think we need it. Do you? And 
it will add enormously to the dish washing.” 

Jeanne finally agreed not. 

“ Let’s see. How many of us will there 
be?” 

She began to count up. 

“ Six from the Allens’. Nine of us here. 
That’s fifteen. Four from the Van Tynes’— 
nineteen. And if all the other children and 
older people come—why, about thirty! What 
a crowd! We won’t have chairs enough.” 

“ You young people will have to sit on the 
floor.” 

By three o’clock the ice-cream was made and 
four freezers were covered over with heavy 
blankets in the cool corner under the back 
porch. Platters of crisp brown cookies and 
two huge cakes, one chocolate and one frosted 
with white icing, filled the pantry shelves. 
The big living-room had been prettily 
decorated with branches of autumn leaves and 
wild flowers for which the decorative committee 
had scoured the country. Great jars and 
bowls of it made cheerful splashes of color 
throughout the room. On the porch Japanese 



A Farewell Party 277 

lanterns had been strung up from pillar to 
pillar and bobbed about gently in a soft breeze. 
The workers, weary and hot, sat about compli¬ 
menting themselves and each other on their 
speed and ability. 

“ Costume! ” groaned Tom at last. 

“ Well, I’m for a bathing costume first,” 
Jack announced. “ I have no thoughts further 
than that.” 

“ Yeah! Let’s worry a lot and build a house 
on it,” Harry agreed. He and Steve grinned 
at each other. Thejr had settled the question 
of their costumes early in the morning and 
were comfortably at ease about it. 

So the question of fancy dress—so absorb¬ 
ing to the girls and so obnoxious to the boys— 
was laid on the table for two hours while they 
all went swimming. It was the “ last ” swim, 
as it was getting to be the “ last ” of so many 
things, and each one felt the pleasure should be 
prolonged a little longer. 

By five-thirty, however, the last one was out 
of the water and back in his room dressing for 
the party. Hoots and jeers came up from the 
boys’ rooms and ecstatic squeals of delight were 
wafted down from the girls up-stairs. The 


278 'Jeanne's House Party 

buffet supper, agreed upon early in the day, 
had been standing in the dining-room fully 
half an hour before anyone was ready to ap¬ 
pear. And even after doors did open and 
figures emerge so much time was spent in view¬ 
ing and applauding that it was after seven 
before Mrs. Stafford could get them down to 
the important business of consuming sand¬ 
wiches and milk and fruit. She finally 
achieved it by summoning Katie and ordering 
her to carry away all the food untouched, at 
which there was a great roar of protest from 
the boys, shrieks from the girls and a concerted 
and instant scramble for the dining-room. 

The guests came early and were ushered 
into the big living-room where the older people, 
who had not dressed in costume, were seated in 
chairs and the younger ones dropped on the 
floor. Then Jack, Master of Ceremonies, 
rose to his feet and read the evening’s program 
which he had cleverly written in verse. At the 
end of it, after enthusiastic applause had died, 
he announced each “ Stunt ” and as no one was 
sure on whom he would next spring, it kept the 
young people in a continual flutter of excite¬ 
ment. 



His Share in the Dance Was Negligible 





A Farewell Party 279 

“ The opening number on our program for 
this evening’s entertainment will be the Pony 
Ballet. The Double Twins will render 
us a charming little song and dance with 
Miss Ruth Winfield accompanying at the 
piano.” 

This Jack announced with all the dignity 
and formality he could summon. Ruth went 
to the piano and played through a line of 
popular songs. Jack folded back a screen and 
in pranced the four boys—Ted and Vic, Harry 
and Steve. At least Vic, Harry and Steve 
pranced but Ted was still limping and his share 
in the dance was negligible. They were all 
dressed in short pink ballet skirts with low 
necked and short sleeved bodices. About their 
heads they had bound broad pink ribbons and 
tied them in flaring bows over their foreheads. 
Pink socks tumbling over white sneakers com¬ 
pleted their costumes. 

They were solemn as they could be while they 
pirouetted and smiled and tossed kisses and 
went through all the feminine tricks before and 
during their song, but they nearly brought 
down the house when they began to dance, 
laboriously and awkwardly going through some 


280 yeannes House Party 

simple steps Ruth had endeavored to teach 
them. 

They were applauded thunderously and had 
to come back for an encore. They sang a 
simple little verse, each of them saying a word 
in turn in unblinking, staccato fashion until 
the whole of the silly ditty was done. Then 
they repeated their dance and came out bowing 
profusely to the assembled audience as they 
took their seats on the floor. 

Ruth was announced next and she rose in 
her gypsy costume and with a little smile at 
all the people behind her went to the piano and 
played some of the music she had studied. It 
was the first time any one had heard her play 
anything but ragtime and they were all sur¬ 
prised and pleased as much by Ruth’s uncon¬ 
sciousness and simplicity as by her music. 

The Allen girls were introduced as Magic 
Mind Readers and had the audience completely 
puzzled by a very simple trick. One of the 
girls went out of the room and the other then 
shook hands with some one of the crowd. 
Dorothy would then reenter, would listen while 
her sister said solemnly: 

“ Round and round goes the magic circle! ” 


A Farewell Party 281 

Upon the word circle her swinging arm would 
pause and her finger pointed—anywhere. 
Then Dorothy would move forward and shake 
hands with the identical person with whom her 
sister had shaken hands. 

Over and over they did this and finally they 
had to tell the assembled gathering that the 
mysterious “ magic circle routine ” had nothing 
to do with it. Grace always shook hands with 
the last person to speak before Dorothy left 
the room. They had dressed themselves all in 
white with hooded heads and covered faces to 
look like soothsayers. 

The Allen boys were dressed in their girl 
cousins’ clothes and did a trick with a string. 
They tied their hands together about the wrist 
and then asked the people to tell them how to 
get themselves apart without breaking the 
string or tying themselves in knots too. They 
obeyed everyone’s instructions until instruc¬ 
tions gave out then they slipped the string in 
some simple way and unloosened themselves 
without any effort at all. 

Jeanne had dressed as a Red Cross nurse and 
recited a poem. Carol was arrayed in a multi¬ 
tude of gay clothing collected from various 


282 yeanne's House Party 

and sundry sources, and the whole presented a 
very pleasing effect. She purposed to be a 
Spanish girl and with Ruth again at the piano 
she gave a really fine exhibition of fancy danc¬ 
ing. She interpreted the moods and character 
of a Spanish girl by manipulating a lovely big 
shawl in petulance and disdain and pride. It 
was a quite remarkable copy of one of the fore¬ 
most stage dancers of the time. 

Bee was dressed in her khaki riding trousers 
and with her sombrero on her short dark hair, 
gay handkerchief knotted around her neck and 
leather riding boots on she cut quite a pic¬ 
turesque little figure. She swung a lariat for 
their entertainment and quite amused the gath¬ 
ering when she lassoed the unsuspecting Jack 
and Jeanne as they stood talking quietly in a 
corner and dragged them both, with arms 
bound tight to their sides, to the center of the 
room. It was difficult for her to do her stunt 
in the living-room, big as it was, but she gave 
them a fair idea of her skill and had all the 
boys open-mouthed with astonishment and 
admiration. 

Tom, in his sailor’s uniform for which lazi¬ 
ness he had been scathed and scorned and 


A Farewell Party 283 

frowned upon, did a Sailor’s Hornpipe. And 
Jack, who had rigged himself up like Robinson 
Crusoe or any other romantic character you 
might choose to call him, simply stood up be¬ 
fore these people and told them some of his ex¬ 
periences. He stuck to the funny ones, and 
had them in gales of helpless laughter but when 
he came back to his place Jeanne whispered 
knowingly: 

“ But, Jack, that is the least of all you have 
known. Is it not so? ” 

He simply smiled at her and shook his head 
in reproach as if to say that this was not an 
occasion for anything solemn or sad. 

After the individual stunts were over, 
they all gathered about the piano and sang 
loudly and lustily while the refreshments were 
being served to the older people, and even 
when they held their own plates in their hands, 
they sang on, loath to stop what they kept as¬ 
suring themselves and each other was fine 
harmony. 

It did not take long for the ice-cream and 
cake to disappear and after that the older 
people went out to the porch while the younger 
ones rolled up the rugs and danced. But a 


284 “Jeanne's House Party 

big moon lifted itself from the blackness of the 
lake about half-past ten, and lured by its 
brilliance they all went outdoors. Some of the 
older people had left and the young crowd dis¬ 
persed itself on cushions and hammocks and 
with the thrumming of a ukulele and intermit¬ 
tent singing keeping up the undertone, they 
talked until almost midnight. Then Mrs. 
Stafford had to take matters in her own hands 
and laughingly send the guests home, after 
they had cheered in shouts that set the echoes 
to ringing for “ Jeanne’s House Party.” 


CHAPTER XX 


BREAD AND BUTTER LETTERS 

Jeanne was left all alone in the white 
cottage on the lake. The Allens’ house was 
closed. The Van Tynes’ was having the last 
shutter nailed on as she sat there watching Ted 
and Vic hurrying around doing the final neces¬ 
sary things. They came over in a few minutes, 
looking very strange in their well-pressed 
city clothes. Ted mopped a hot forehead and 
sat at ease but Victor was constrained. 

“ Must be the clothes,” Jeanne ventured 
mischievously. “ All dressed up and nothing 
to say.” 

Vic grunted, then grinned. 

“ You’re about right. Gosh! I hate to go 
back. It’s been a wonderful summer. S’pose 
you’ll be back up next year, Jeanne? ” 

“ I don’t know, Vic. There seems to be a 

plan afoot for us all to go out to Montana to 

285 ^ 


286 Jeanne's House Party 

visit Bee. I’d be a little sorry not to get here. 
Still—Montana sounds adventurous! ” 

“ Let’s go and get a job on a ranch some¬ 
where, eh, Vic? ” Ted suggested. 

“ Oh, do!” Jeanne clapped her hands. 
“ On Jack’s ranch. Why not? Then if only 
we could get Tom there-” 

Mrs. Stafford appeared laughing in the 
doorway. 

“ Jeanne, you are impossible.” 

“ Well,” Jeanne cried defiantly, “ it may 
happen. Anything may.” 

“ To you—yes,” Vic agreed. “ We’ll never 
get there.” 

“ You’ve got to want to,” Jeanne flashed. 
“ And want to, and believe you’re going to, and 
then start. Don’t I know? ” 

Mrs. Van Tyne called. The boys rose re¬ 
gretfully. Good-byes were difficult enough 
without the handicap of awkward youth but 
somehow they were said, and Jeanne was left, 
a lonely figure on the porch, waving good-bye 
to the Van Tynes’ automobile until it disap¬ 
peared from sight. 

“ Thank goodness, cherie, we’ll be off to¬ 
morrow.” Jeanne flung an arm about her 



Bread and Butter Letters 287 

mother. “ This is a dreadful place to be alone 
in! ” 

For Jack had taken Bee and Carol down to 
New York with him where they were being 
chaperoned in a big hotel by M’amselle. Bee 
had to go ahead to buy some clothes for the 
school year and had wanted Carol’s advice. 
So with M’amselle to keep a watchful eye on 
the purchases and Jack to give the girls a good 
time in between shopping expeditions, they had 
gone gaily off. 

Ruth had left a day previous to their de¬ 
parture, bravely accompanied by the twins, 
Harry and Steve, and Tom. Harry and 
Steve were to be with her only part of the way 
but Tom was going all the way to Ruth’s house 
to meet her mother. 

Thinking of all these things, Jeanne sug¬ 
gested after lunch that they drive down for the 
mail. The girls should have had time to write 
by now. But Mrs. Stafford was too busy 
closing up the cottage and needed her chauffeur 
so Jeanne finally got out her white canoe and 
paddled all alone down the creek to the little 
village. 

She was delighted to find a letter from each 


288 ^Jeanne s House Party 

of the three girls and one from Jack and Tom 
too. She decided not to read them until she 
got back in her canoe and there, with the little 
boat drifting along under overhanging willows, 
she opened up the letters. Jack’s first. 

“ Dear Jeanne: 

“ Here we are—or rather I am—wait¬ 
ing for Bee and Carol to put in an appearance 
before we go out to dinner somewhere. Bee has 
gotten so fussy about her clothes you wouldn’t 
know her. You wouldn’t anyway, because 
you’ve hardly seen her in anything but bloom¬ 
ers, bathing suit or sailor dresses. She’s got 
two or three rigs now I’ll have to leave her to 
describe, that make her look a picture. She’s 
as proud as a little peacock, and I believe Carol 
when she tells me it’s Bee has kept me waiting 
—not she. 

“ Carol is enjoying Bee’s pleasure too, and 
takes a ’hind seat in an amazingly graceful 
way, all things considered. I think you girls 
are going to have a wonderful old year to¬ 
gether at school and I’m awfully glad you’re to 
have it. There’s nothing like tying up tight 
to the friends you love, and you’re all of you 
peaches. 

“ Tom is to join us to-night and will bring 
the latest word from Ruth. He goes back to 


Bread and Butter Letters 289 

service to-morrow so this is his last fling. 
There’s just one thing missing from the party 
to-night and that’s you. I wish you were with 
us. 1 miss you. How can I tell you what the 
visit up at Lake Sunnapine did for me? I 
got there pretty tired out with the tussle of 
lighting and nearly dying and living again. 
And the road ahead looked long and lonely and 
dark. And somehow, I can’t just say how, 
you lit it up for me while I was with you, and 
now, even though I won’t see you again for a 
long time, it is not nearly so long or so lonely 
and it will never again be dark. Thank you, 
and bless you. And think once in a while in 
the midst of your fun and frolics next year of 

“ Your faithful, 

“Jack.” 


“ As if,” Jeanne murmured, “ as if I could 
ever forget him. Ever. Ever . Oh! but I’m 
glad if I did do that nice thing for him, though 
I don’t see how-” 

She mused for a while, her hand trailing 
over the side of the boat amongst the water 
lilies. Then she picked up her paddle and 
drove her canoe on for a way. But soon she 
ceased effort and picked up another letter from 
her lap. It was from Tom. 



290 


"Jeanne s House Party 

“ Dear Jeanne: 

“ I always was a dub at writing letters 
and when it comes to 4 thank you' ones. I’m 
worse than a ship at sea in a storm. Anyway, 
you know what a corking time I had with you 
and how much I appreciated being included 
among your friends, so it’s silly to waste time 
saying it over again. 

“ I got Ruth home all right and met the 
family. Had supper with them in fact and 
witnessed their astonishment when Ruth broke 
the news about school. She and her mother 
had kept it a secret from the others. They’re 
all delighted, especially Mrs. Winfield. She 
can’t get over the change in Ruth. 

“ ‘ It’s not that she looks so different, though 
she does, or dresses so different, though she’s 
done that too with the same clothes—I don’t 
know how—but she is different,’ she said 
over and over. 

“ Ruth walked with me to the station and 
here I am writing this on the train to New 
York. I’ll mail it as soon as I get in. Expect 
to meet Jack and the girls to-night. 

44 Well, Jeanne, it’s a long way back to the 

time I hauled you up over the side of the ship 

on the rope, isn’t it? And a lot has happened 

to you since then. And T suppose lots will 

happen. I hope, though, you won’t forget me 

no matter how far vou travel or how manv 

* 


Bread and Butler Letters 


2()l 

people you meet. Because I’Ll never forget 

you. 

“ With many, many thanks again—• 

“ Your friend, 

“ Tom Kelly.” 

“ Nice Tom,” Jeanne smiled. “ He’s the 
best friend I have. Well, I might as well 
finish this right here now because Fm dying of 
curiosity to hear what the girls say.” 

She opened Ruth’s next. 

“ Darling Jeanne: 

“1 can hardly believe I am home again 
and that the summer is really gone by. I looked 
forward to it so hard and it was so wonderful 
after all. But as I think about it now I can 
see that all the dreadful first part had to he. I 
had to grow out of it. I couldn’t have jumped 
into being the person I was after—well, after 
Tom came—right at the start. I couldn’t. I 
can’t explain this, but I mean something like 
this. Life is so slow and then again it’s so fasti 
It’s slow when you aren’t right inside yourself, 
and fast when you are. 

“ Tom and I had a wonderful talk after the 
twins left us. He’s the best friend a girl could 
have. He just talks like a big brother—yet 
he’s not a big brother so I can talk back to him. 






292 ‘Jeanne's House Party 

I’m awfully happy to know him so well. And 
of all the happiness that’s come to me this 
wonderful summer at your lovely house party, 
I really think knowing Tom is the biggest and 
best part. And on top of and close to that is 
knowing you. It’s precious to think I shall 
have a winter at school with you next year be¬ 
cause I have the feeling that we’ve just begun 
knowing each other, and I want to keep on. 

“ I’ve got to get busy now and cook and 
clean and sew. I’ve got some busy weeks ahead 
of me but I shan’t mind them at all, because of 

what’s ahead. Do write me once before vou 

•/ 

leave the lake and tell me you understand that 
I had a prayerful time at your house party 
even though I can’t say it right at all. 

“ A heartful of love from 

“Ruth.” 


“ Jeanne, you old dear: 

“Why aren’t you here? Oh! I wish 
you were. I’m so all dressed up in wonderful 
new clothes that I can’t bear to sit down—• 
they’re so scrumptious. Jack laughs at me all 
the time. He’ll say it’s my primping has kept 
him waiting for me, but it’s not—this time! 
It’s this letter to you. Carol’s writing too. 

“ Time has gone so fast and we’ve seen and 
bought so much and played so hard that I shall 
be glad to stop. I think of the blessed quiet 


Bread and Butter Betters 293 

blueness and greenness at Lake Sunnapine 
and honestly, I’d give a good deal for a day 
there! But never mind. This is a whirl but 
it’s part of life for me just now so I take it 
gladly. 

“ Carol has been darling. I don’t know 
what I’d have done without her. Lost my 
head, probably, and bought the first things I 
saw—they all seemed gorgeous—and in the end 
would have looked much as you tell me you 
did after vour shopping expedition with the 
good old captain. 

“ But this isn’t to be a detailed account of me 
and my doings which I shall have to tell you 
anyway in a few days when we all gather at 
Aunt Bee’s home up the Hudson before start¬ 
ing for school—it’s a bread and butter letter. 

“ Honestly, Jeanny—as Katie says—it was 
a wonderful house party you were aft her 
havin’, and the best ’av it was yer own swate 
silf. How you ever kept cool and patient and 
sweet when everything and everybody was go¬ 
ing wrong, I don’t see. But wasn’t it wonder¬ 
ful the way things turned out? It was—as 
Carol tells me—an experience for her. And I 
guess it was for Ruth. And I shouldn’t 
wonder if next year at school will be an experi¬ 
ence for me because I’ve never been to one as 
von three have. I’ve just ridden horseback to 
a shack where a dozen children all ages and 



294 Jeanne s House Party 

sizes got together. This will be different cer¬ 
tainly. And I know it will be hard and lonely 
but 1 shan’t mind a bit if you will stick close 
by me. We may room together again, mayn’t 
we? 

“ Good-bye, chum— 

“ Lots of love, 

“ Bee.” 

The last one, of course, was from Carol. 

“ Dear Jeanne: 

“ In the first place I want to apologize 
for being such a nuisance and annoyance the 
first part of my visit to you. I suppose if I 
were with you I’d never get this said even if I 
were bursting with the ache of it. But now 
that I am miles away, I write it. Rather 
cowardly, I suppose, but it’s the best I can do. 

“ I haven’t any excuse except the old one 
that I didn’t know any better. But I am learn¬ 
ing a few things, I think. Only when I stop 
and think how much I have still to learn it’s a 
little bit discouraging. Do you know what I 
mean? Ruth’s known about helping others and 
giving up for years. Bee’s known about being 
natural and wholesome. And you’ve learned 
so much about living,—I think, really, you 
know all that Ruth and Bee and I know and 
then some. And that’s why you’re such a help 
to all of us. 


Bread and Butter Letters 295 

“ But I guess that’s enough about me. 

“ 1 wish you could see Bee. She looks dar¬ 
ling to-night. She’s got on a navy blue dress 
touched up with scarlet. Her hat is navy with 
scarlet ribbon on it and her shoes and stockings 
are black. She’s too adorable, the wav she 
loves herself in the looking-glass and yet the 
minute we get out anywhere, she forgets all 
about her new finery and plumps into painted 
doorways as though she had on her bloomers 
and middy unless Jack or I stop her. 

“ And Jack, by the way, threatens over the 
telephone to send in a fire alarm if Bee and I 
don’t go down to him pretty quick. So 1 
guess we’d better stop. 

46 Good-bye, Jeanne dear. Thank you for a 
wonderful summer that has somehow opened 
up a new life for me. 

“ Lovingly, 

44 Carol.” 

Jeanne bunched all the letters in her hand, 
then she dropped them on her lap again, patted 
them lovingly and leaned back to look up at the 
sky. White clouds drifted lazily over a sea of 
blue. Around the edge of the shore could be 
seen here and there a few scarlet trees, while on 
the placid lake floated leaves,—first signs of the 
end of the summer. Jeanne sighed and smiled. 


296 yeanne's House Party 

It was sad—this getting to the end of good 
times but somehow it always meant the be- 
ginning of other ones and already her thoughts 
were leaping ahead to the reunion with her 
cousins at boarding school. 

She glanced down smilingly again at the 
letters in her lap. It was almost as if those 
dear people were with her and had spoken to 
her. 

How lucky she was. IIow lucky she was! 
A successful house party behind her—a won¬ 
derful year at boarding-school ahead of her! 
Life was offering her rich gifts. Jeanne picked 
up her paddle at last and with a face lit with 
happiness at memories of the past and antici¬ 
pation of the future, she pushed her little white 
canoe toward home. 


The Stories in thi* Series *re: 

JEANNE 

JEANNE’S HOUSE PARTY 

JEANNE’S WONDERFUL YEAR (In press) 



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